A Fateful Meeting Tentative Title
by thedreamer256
Summary: AU. Frills, laces, and ribbons. This was the constant disaster Natsume had to put up with everyday. Then...he had hired disaster. And disaster had another synonym: Mikan. Undergoing major plot changes and revision. #1
1. Meetings and Enemies

**Hiii there! Originally, this was for NatsumeSeries Contest #2, but I decided to make it longer! This is my very first story so I'm basically new here :D **

**8/22/2010: _T__his is the revised version of the very first chapter. Some how, I thought that the old first chapter was a bit sloppy in the beginning, so I rewrote it and edited in a few parts (Including changing the titles and stuff)._**

**Song Pick: Stop and Stare by One Republic**

**Disclaimer: Gakuen Alice does NOT belong to me. It belongs to Tachibana Higuchi-sama for creating such awesome characters. (It is basically pointless to post a disclaimer on every single chapter after this. The point is, it's not mine).**

* * *

**:-:A Fateful Meeting:-:**

**:-:A Gakuen Alice Fanfiction:-:**

**:-:Chapter 1:-:**

* * *

It's every girl's dream to get married before 30. Isn't it?

Well you know what? I only have five more years before that. Five more years. My romantic life…ahem…isn't the ideal fairytale girls' dream. I've dated various people. But none of them seemed _right,_ you know? And so, I've had the infamous record of breaking up with them in a matter of days. I always say, "I'm happily single! I don't need a boyfriend!" and then I nervously laugh it away. But the real truth is, I want to love and be loved back. Maybe…I just haven't found the right person yet.

I've always wondered: Is there really true love in this world? Are the legends about your soul mate and finding your other half true? Is romantic love…really all that sweet and fluffy stuff? Or is it full of heart break and pain? I was about to know.

I'm Mikan Sakura. 25 years old.

Annnnddddd jobless.

This is my story.

* * *

_:-:Mikan's House; 9:23 AM; Mikan:-:_

I was dreaming. I'm pretty sure I was.

My dream was about wrestling a fat dude (And he was really ugly too. His fat wife was carrying his man purse too.) in the Sydney Opera House and actually winning against him. AND he was a foreigner! (Or, rather I was a foreigner) EPIC DREAM EVER!

But then, flooding sunlight hit my eyelids with heat and it made it impossible not to wake up. You know those mornings when you feel so tired and you felt like something bad was going to happen that morning, you wished you just stayed home instead?

Yeah, I felt like that.

You know what the term for that was?

That's right. I felt like crap.

"Miiiiii~kaaaaaannnnn!" A light soprano voice floated into my room. "Breakfast! Blueberry pancakes!"

Or maybe not.

I leaped out of bed, fell down the stairs, and actually bled from a cut I didn't know existed until I applied Germ-X into my hand. That was smooth.

"You okay, Mikan?" Mom asked in a light blue plaid apron. "It smells delicious!"

"Yeah, it does!" I quickly sat at the dining table and hungrily devoured the first pancake in a matter of seconds. "Hey mom, I gotta go to a job interview soon so I can't go shopping with you again. Sorry."

Mom ruffled my hair lightly. "Silly. I'm okay if I go alone." The chair protested against the floor as she pulled it out in front of me. "Actually, I need to talk about something with you."

"Hm?" I grunted. A lopsided blueberry pancake hung out of my mouth, waiting for her to continue.

"Well," She picked up a glossy fashion magazine nearby, flipping through the pages. "I'd like to introduce you to my best friend's son. His name's Natsume."

I abruptly stopped eating my pancake, nearly choking myself. I spat it out and took deep breaths. I looked at my plate again. _Ughh…I'm not gonna eat that again…wait what'd she say again?_ "So you want me to go on a blind date?"

Her footsteps leaped off the chair and went to grab her cup of cappuccino. "Well, hypothetically speaking, yes. To be exact, you're engaged to him."

It took me quite a moment to process what she was saying. _Exact...engaged...him?_ WHAT? NO! THIS COULD NEVER HAPPEN!

"MOOOOOOOMMMMM! Come on, really? I got engaged to a person I don't know? NO WAY! Those happened 500 years ago!" I slunk back into my chair and laid my head back on the seat.

"Mikan, you just lost your job because you got into a fight with your boss about whether roses or lilies would go with the banquet halls, right?" Mom said with an exasperated sigh. "You should really consider this engagement, Mikan. You're already 25 and you lost your job more than the designer purses that I have. He owns a really beautiful wedding shop too. Besides you work in the profession so you should really consider it."

"Mom, as much as I love you, I can find a job where I can last for at least a long time. And about the engagement, please cancel it," I begged. I knew that even if it was an engagement, that Natsume guy wouldn't be happy, and I wouldn't be happy either. Love just doesn't work like that. I wouldn't be happy marrying a guy I didn't know.

I heard a distinct smirk. I looked up to see my mom smiling. "I'll cancel the engagement, only if you can hold a job for four months. Four full months, got it? And no feigning illness okay?"

"Ughhh fineee!" My hands reached for the nearest paper within proximity. I quickly skimmed through the "Help Wanted" section in the newspaper to pick out a random address. My hand randomly circled an ad and wrote down the address on a Post-it note, "I'm going to apply for a job here mom!" I proudly showed my mom the random address I circled in red pen.

"I'm going now!" I ran up the stairs to change my clothes that were right for a job interview. If I managed to hold this job for four full months, then the engagement was going to be canceled and I didn't have to worry about it! Cue happy Mikan dance!

Other than that, mom's right. I really need to get a stable job. Joining the wedding profession was my dream when I was a little girl. Those beautiful dresses and flowers in the churches, I really loved it all. My dream was to grow up and make a once in a life time moment for people so I could see smiles on their faces. So, this random address may be my chance to hope and success! The address I wrote down sparkled in a new light while I smiled at the memory. I just hope this boss is different from those snobby other ones.

Skipping happily back down the stairs to give my mom a wave goodbye, I grabbed my purse and made a go for it. "You just watch mom! I will hold this job longer than you think I can!" I shouted as I ran out the door, closing it with a slam.

That's right! To pursue my dream and cancel that dreaded engagement, I HAD to do this. I quickly approached the remaining vehicle that was parked in the driveway, and ignited the engine. Yes, I HAD to finish this job-whether I liked it or not. I sighed and drove away from the peaceful heaven that was known as my home.

"That girl really is something isn't she," Yuka said absentmindedly while picking up the thrown newspaper on the ground. "It seems like they're going to meet today." Circled in red, were the words "Hyuuga Fantasies".

* * *

_:-:Hyuuga Fantasies; 9:35 AM; Natsume:-:_

I'm REALLY thinking of changing the store name soon.

Every damn couple comes here because of the store name and thinks, "Is the wedding planner a girl?" Just because the store is named "Hyuuga Fantasies", doesn't mean the owner's a girl! I was getting fumed by the minute. At least Aoi would understand. **She** was the one who put me in this profession in the first place.

_:-:Two Years Ago; 7 AM; Natsume:-:_

"Aoi, where the hell are we going? You know people are still sleeping at this time of day! I secretly doubt you're even human by doing this!" I said as she pulled my arm into a bridal shop. Hell, it was seven in the morning. Where did she get all this energy from?

"But onii-chan! Mom's out on a business trip so I figured no one else would come but you! You know how mom is! She will ramble on and on about which dresses are the best! I just want to go in quickly and go out! I'm only a bridesmaid anyway. Now hurry, all of my friends are waiting for me!" Aoi said as she dragged me in. I was suspicious of a conspiracy but that thought was pushed away when we went in. The instant we came in the shop, the girly perfume made me walk as fast as I could out the door. A hand grabbed me back and I gave Aoi the death stare.

"I'm sorry onii-chan. But I have to do this," Aoi said as she grabbed a rope from her bag. In seconds, I was already bound in a chair. "What happened to the innocent Aoi?" I grumbled as I was forced to attend the wedding meeting.

She gave me that phony smile and said, "She disappeared when onii-chan refused to play tea party with me and crashed my tea set," Aoi said as she tightly tied the last knot on my chair.

"You still remember that, even when you were only six?" I asked when I tried to struggle. Damn, it was tight. Was she staying up late those few nights just for this? She always looked like a raccoon whenever she woke up recently.

"Aoi?" A bunch of girls stepped out from the curtains that concealed them. We turned our heads to find a bunch of ordinary looking girls in those high class dresses. In an instant, I knew the damn perfume was heading my way. I tried to struggle out of the chair with all of my might before my life was over. Seeing that I was making no progress, I scowled and turned my head in the other direction.

She ran past me to hug her friends, who were staring…straight at me. Damn it, there's no escape this time. My hands found their way to the knot and they started pulling the rope. Dang! It was tight too!

"I'm sorry I'm late! Anyway I brought my brother here!" she said to the crowd of girls. Half of them were still staring with their mouths agape, while the other half were listening to her while looking at me.

"Geez…I knew there was a conspiracy," I murmured under my breath. One girl snapped out of her trance and announced, "Alright then. Let's get started shall we?" Due to her complex white layered dress, I could tell that she was the to-be bride. I sneezed as the perfume inched closer. The tight knot still didn't give leeway.

The girls reluctantly moved from their standing positions and started with the meeting. Seeing Aoi's happy face made me tune into their discussion once in a while, and most of the time I was cursing myself for giving Aoi the house keys.

In the end, I contributed the most ideas without even knowing it. When it was over (and when I finally untied the last knot), Aoi calmly pulled out a chair beside me. I was ready to stand up to run out of the store when Aoi spoke.

"Onii-chan, I think you should be a wedding planner," she said without hesitation.

"What?" I was taken aback. I never really thought about my career path. It was just me that lazed around all day. True, I had acquired a business degree at Alice College, but it didn't count toward anything. I just continued with life after college, not knowing what to do. I paused with the ropes in my hands and she continued.

"You made my friend really happy with your ideas. I'm sure she'll be happy. But onii-chan," She looked at me straight in the eye. There it was. The same crimson puppy dog eyes…"I want you to make other couples happy too. I want other people to know that once-in-a-life-time experience. And if you can make other people happy, then Aoi can be happy too. And when it's Aoi's turn to get married, I can get a once-in-a-lifetime experience planned by my brother." She concluded with a bright smile that I've rarely seen before. A once in a life time experience, huh…

"Onii-chan?" Aoi asked as I slowly stood up.

"I'll do it," I said faintly and furrowed my short eyebrows. "But I'll only retire until you're going to get married." That was my goal, and I intended to finish that goal until Aoi got what she wanted. Hell, I was bored with playing video games all day anyway. Being in control with a "Once-in-a-lifetime" experience might even be...as exciting as beating a boss in a video game. But I was never going to admit that to Aoi, even if someone killed me 1,000 times. Besides, I could even get money just by having ideas and working it out. It didn't seem that hard.

The next few months were like hell as Aoi and my mom excitedly decorated my store with frilly lace and satin curtains. All of it was creeping me out, but I learned how to adjust to it. They arranged everything: from the grand exterior to the little corner that no one would even look at. Aoi even came up with that shitty store name that I was getting all pissed about. I could care less, just as long as that money keeps rolling in.

And now, as much as I won't admit it, I really need an assistant. Mainly, to take care of the mountains of paperwork that was piling up. The last assistant was slacking off while the paperwork was building up. The easiest thing to do was to fire her. Take a load of crap off of my mind and I'm happy. The only thing I wasn't happy about was the work I have to take home everyday.

Then, **she **came along and changed everything…

* * *

_:-:Outside of Hyuuga Fantasies; 9:37 AM; Mikan:-:_

"Hyuuga Fantasies? Sounds like a name a girl would give to a store," I said aloud as I stood outside the elegantly decorated wedding shop. In the display floor to ceiling length window were the newest designs of bridal dresses on mannequins. There were also yellow roses in the glass vase and a crystal chandelier that gave a romantic feeling. My intuition told me that I was going to like working here. I pushed open the silver handle and walked into my success. Or, so I thought.

As I entered the store, I noticed three carpet stairs leading up to the main floor. I was standing on the bottom with white marbled tiles. There were other numerous rooms from my view. I put up my extra super bright smiley face and singsonged, "Hiii I'm Mikan Sakura! I'm here for a job as an assis-"

"You're hired," A low voice interrupted as my short song died.

_What? Is it possible to get hired in only nine seconds?_

I slowly opened my eyes to find to dark, raven haired guy in a grey vest and a crisp white shirt. His crimson eyes were what pulled me in the most. They were stunning, almost the color of blood. The immediate thought that popped into my head was, "What? I thought this store was owned by a girl!" I covered my mouth and discovered that I spoke my thoughts out loud.

"Never mind, you're fired," The red-eyed guy said immediately with a "Don't-piss-me-off-or-I'm-going-to-shoot-you" kind of look. My left eye twitched at him.

_What? Was it possible to get fired in nine seconds too?_

"H-H-Hey, wait a minute! I was here solely for the purpose of a job! I can't get fired in nine seconds!" I protested. I wasn't going to lose this fight, right after I had just been fired!

He opened his mouth to make a blunt comment when a gorgeous girl stepped out from the lavender satin curtains. She was almost the exact same as him, but her face was kinder than her brother's, so I assumed. "Onii-chan, why are you doing this again? You should hire that girl! I see potential in her," she said with a wondering eye at me.

"Well I don't," He said bluntly with his poker face. "I just fired that ugly girl so she should just go somewhere else." My anger was rising up. Who was he? Saying I have no potential and I was ugly? That's clearly disrespect for all girls! I was fuming by the second.

"Well then, as a decorator of this store and as your sister, I will hire her," she said boldly as she placed her hand on my shoulder. "You're in need of an assistant anyway. I can't even climb past the mountains of paperwork in that is in that empty room!"

_M-M-M-M-Mountains? What?_

"Hn," he grunted. His grunt was taken as a yes from his sister and she dragged me past the lavender curtains and through the halls. "H-H-H-Hey wait a second! Don't I need to fill out an application and go to an interview or something?" I said as I was being dragged.

"Oh no, you don't need to do that because I've already hired you! It's not like you need to go on probation or anything either. By the way I'm Aoi Hyuuga, the younger sister of the boss that owns this place, which was the person who just fired you. Sorry, onii-chan can be like that sometimes, but please bear with him," Aoi dragged me to a darkly lit room.

"Are there any windows in here? I thought it was morning!" I commented as I wandered around. As I went into the dim room, I tripped over something heavy. As I raised my head up, I saw mountains and mountains of paper. "So you weren't kidding about the work, huh?" I said as I stared, not even noticing that the pile of papers in front of me that was going to tip in my direction!

"This room does have windows. Or at least it had before the papers covered them-HEY WATCH OUT!" Aoi shouted at the door frame.

"Wha-!" I turned my head in her direction to see someone rushing towards me. Then the room became blurry as I heard something fall over. Luckily, I was able to dodge the stack of papers by sidestepping to the left. Someone else wasn't so lucky.

There was Aoi, sprawled across the floor, struggling to move under the weight of the papers on top of her. On her face was a red bruise the size of a fist.

"Aoi! Are you alright? I'm sorry!" I jumped in next to her to see if her bruise was okay and lifted some of the papers off of her. "Ughhhh" was the only sound I could get out of her while I helped her sit up and placed her back on the wall. Her hand instantly went to her wound and rubbed it softly. She muttered, "Are you okay Mikan?" with a faint smile.

"I'm fi-," I began, relieved, when I noticed a dark presence behind me. My head whipped around to find her brother glowering at both of us, and my nerves froze. He was as scary as hell with those frightening crimson eyes!

"Aoi," His voice towered above us. He knelt down to help her up with his back facing me. "I-I'm sorry Aoi," were the last words I could utter before he cut me off, again.

"That's enough." He stood up with Aoi's head on his shoulder. "Your job for this week is to finish all those papers, overtime or not." And with that he left me stranded in a dark room to finish the humongous stacks of paper.

What a great day to start my new job. I met a hardhearted boss and accidentally caused harm to his dearest sister. I quietly picked up the stack of papers on the floor and sighed to myself. This was the least I could do to makeup for Aoi.

Gosh, I knew it. I should've stayed home today.


	2. Visitors and Pranks

**Hey again! Sorry it's been SOO long. School and all that crap. But I promise when I don't get lazy, I'll do my best to finish the story! Please enjoy and review! **

**8/22/2010: _This is the revised version of chapter two because I edited, revised, and added a few things in this one! _**

******Song Pick: Dental Care by Owl City**

* * *

**:-:A Fateful Meeting:-:**

**:-:A Gakuen Alice Fanfiction:-:**

**:-:Chapter 2:-:**

* * *

_:-:Hyuuga Fantasies; 3:03 PM; Mikan:-:_

Where was I? I can safely tell you that I was listening in on the boss and his sister bickering when I was supposed to finish my piles and piles of paperwork. No, not eavesdropping, LISTENING IN.

After that particular incident with Aoi, I couldn't show my face in front of the siblings. I just couldn't. One of them hates me and I injured the other one. So I cooped up in the dark room with one light on, not even writing anything down. I only ever went out of the room for lunch and drinks. "Coincidentally" after I got my coffee, I heard voices in the other room where the siblings were talking. I flattened myself against the wall to LISTEN IN.

"Aoi," a growl came out from me as I recognized the gruff voice. "Why did you hire **that **person? She's had bad grades since 1st grade. Which means she's not particularly smart. Which also means the work won't get done hiring a moron." A vein popped on my head. _How would he know that? _My impression on this guy was irritating me.

"You asked Ruka to search up Mikan's profile haven't you?" a sigh could be heard on the other side of the wall I was leaning on. _Ruka? That name sounds so familiar_..."Really nii-chan, you shouldn't judge her based on her background and grades. You never know, she might have some incredible talents that could be useful."

"Incredible talents for being an idiot," he replied back. "Look at wha-"

Angry footsteps and curses could be heard outside their door when I had enough of their conversation. Frustration and anger choked my throat as I angrily slammed the door to the dim room. I really really did want to quit right away, but it was the only promise I made to my mom about the engagement. I HAD to stay for four freaking months! A new resolution popped into my head. After the four months of pain, then I would quit for sure. Then, I would escape.

_:-:Hyuuga Fantasies; 3:05 PM:-:_

Both siblings heard the door slam with a loud boom and concluded one thing: _She was eavesdropping!_

"I can go fire her now, right?" Natsume looked behind him, knowing that he would not see a presence of a certain annoying person outside the door. He went back to looking at the document he was holding in his hand again and his headache came back. _Damn, this thing is giving me migraines!_

"Nii-chan! She's only been here for one day. Besides, I have a feeling that Mikan is very different from those other girls that you've had as assistants." The chair across the room screeched against the tiled floor and Aoi fell into a chair with a graceful plop.

"See Natsume, try to be a little gentler to girls next time," Aoi sighed with a dramatic effect. "Girls won't get attracted to you if you show them your icy attitude."

"Don't even start. Don't you even remember that crazy fangirl that stalked us home? I had to call Ruka and that hell of a devil to fend her off. I don't ever want to get married."

"Oh yeah! I forgot about your mysterious fiancée. Mom really is keeping a tight lid on her identity, huh? I bet no one knows who it is," Aoi pranced around the spacious room. "But I can't wait until I get to know who she is! That fiancée of yours must be a very nice girl if mom likes her so much!"

Only a grunt could be heard from her brother. "I'm asking Ruka to look into this. If he doesn't even know who she is, I still have my ways of canceling the engagement."

Aoi sighed. There really was nothing that she could do except get used to his ways. She jumped on the couch and laid down. "So how is Ruka-nii? Is he happy living with his wife?"

"Happy my ass. I bet he stays at home and cooks for his wife while living in fear of being blackmailed by the devil." Natsume snapped.

Aoi's face froze with a sweat drop added in. _Nii-chan will always be nii-chan._

"But when we came to their wedding, they looked blissfully happy. Hotaru-chan was smiling too. It's rare to see her smile, unless it was about something that she really liked doing. I could tell that she was happy with him. Ruka-nii was smiling that 1,000 kilowatt smile of his too." Aoi added.

"Yeah well you should listen to him more. In middle school, the devil blackmailed him with secret pictures that she took. When he finally realized it, she took more than 100,000 pictures of him. I still don't know how many pictures she has of him right now." Natsume commented. "Hey Aoi could you help-"

Aoi jumped up from the couch and grabbed her purse from the glass table which held a vase of white roses in the center. "Gomen nii-chan, I'm going home for some rest and then going shopping. Bye!" As soon as she said the last word, she was gone, gone like the wind.

"She ran. Ran the hell away," Natsume said scrunching his face.

* * *

_:-:Hyuuga Fantasies; 9:56 PM; Mikan:-:_

All the lights were turned off in the bridal store when I silently shut the door to my office room. Well, all of them except one room, and that was _his_room. My sneakers thumped against the tiled floor towards Hyuuga's room. I was going to talk to him and settle things the way they were supposed to be, whether I died in the process or not. Well, if I did die, it would all be in the course of duty, right?

Hesitating outside of his room, I took a deep breath and pushed the door open, smiling that fake smile.

"Hey boss I-"

All of the things in his room were silent except for the hum of his idle computer. Piles of paperwork reached all the way up the ceiling and it never seemed to stop. And in the center of it was the raven haired man with his head down on his desk (Well he looked more like a boy with his sleeping face).

My feet led me right up to his desk. _He really looks tired_ I silently thought to myself as I leaned in to look closer. _It's really hard to believe he looks like a boy when he's really a rude person._ I flinched as he turned his head. Luckily, he continued to sleep. An idea instantly popped into my head and I ran to get the materials. This was going to be my revenge, served ice cold and sweet.

_:-:Mikan's House; 10:12 PM; Mikan:-:_

"Mom! I'm home!" I yelled as loud as I could and I hung my keys on the rack. Ahhh, it was great to be home. Home at last. The smell of coffee instantly hit my face and I noticed another pair of shoes on the floor. They were purple and black flats-something that was familiar to my eyes. Could it be...?

"Mom, is someone else here?" My head popped into the kitchen door. She was chopping another batch of celery and dumped it in a basket. My stomach churned and I mentally reminded myself to dump them in the trash when she wasn't looking.

Her head snapped back to look at me. "Why don't you go see for yourself? It might be a surprise."

The suspicious glint in her eyes confirmed who it was. I sprinted to the living room to find a short ebony haired girl. _Hotaru,_I mouthed. "HOTARUUUUUUUU!" I ran as fast as I could towards her, to envelope her in a hug.

The short haired girl who was peacefully sipping her coffee leaped up from her seat and sidestepped me. _Bang!_My head shook from the crash with the table. I looked up with eyes of fury. "HOTARU! YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THIS!"

"Hold on. I think I've heard of this one before," she said with a monotone voice.

"COME BACK HERE!"

_:-:In the kitchen, during the fight:-:_

"It looks like another win for Hotaru _again_. 1,573,457 to 0. Ahhh, Mikan, give up for once," A plop of vegetables dropped into the bucket.

_:-:28 Minutes later:-:_

"Hotaru, why are you always doing this?" Sobs escaped from me and hiccups were added in as well.

"Why? Because you have never visited me since my wedding and so I've come to you," She spoke with a straight face, "You owe me 456 yen for coming here to visit you."

"WHAT? But you came here on your own!" I screeched. "Your wedding was only two weeks ago too!" There was no way she was going to make me pay for her again.

"Yes, I did and you owe me for that gas I wasted from my car to come visit you."

"NO!"

"Yes."

"NOOOO."

"Yes."

"So how is Ruka-kun, Hotaru?" Mom interrupted with grace. A platter of sweets was set in front of us and Hotaru immediately grabbed a handful.

"Arigato, Yuka-san. Ruka is fine. He's just at home gathering information for Natsume. It's hard to believe that they still stay in contact for a long time," Bits and pieces of a snicker doodle cookie flew out of her mouth as she spoke.

My ears turned to her when she spoke that name. "You know Natsume?"

"Yes. And I have to say, he's quite a jerk," She turned to me. "Why are you asking?"

"Mom can explain," I said with difficulty. Just imagining my self being married with a jerk is something I can't even imagine. It's just like being married to my boss, handsome but a jerk. Wait a minute, did I just think handsome? No! Shut up stupid conscience! My mom briefly explained the situation to Hotaru while a thoughtfully chewed on a cookie.

"Ohhh, so that's what it's about. Well, it's inevitable since Mikan is never going to get a husband anyway," Hotaru commented with her poker face.

"HOOTAAAAARUUUUUUU…," I bellowed.

"So Mikan, how was work today?" My mom commented with her overly smiley face.

"HORRIBLE!" I spat out. I could still remember the incident and Hyuuga. Ughhhhh. I didn't want to think about it.

"Wait, what happened?" Hotaru asked.

"I was yelled at, someone talked behind my back, and I caused someone an injury." Man I could still remember it. It was horrible just to even think about it. I cupped my face in my hands.

"And where do you work again? I remember you work in the bridal profession right? Natsume has a shop in that profession." Hotaru grabbed another handful of sweets.

"I know he has a shop in that 'profession'. I just don't want to know him because you said he's a jerk. But, by the way, I work at Hyuuga Fantasies now. It's not fun, not fun at all. But the boss' sister is very nice to me, so I guess I can hang on for a bit longer. You should come visit too." Well, I can stay until the four months are up, but I wasn't going to tell my mom that.

Hotaru turned to look at my mom. "Yuka, are you sure this isn't some kind of sick joke? I mean she doesn't even know!"

"That's why we must keep it a secre-"

"Wait, what's up?" I interrupted. A nagging, suspicious feeling stuck on me.

"Nothin'" They said in unison. _Yeah, something is up._

Grabbing the platter of sweets away from Hotaru, I ran up the stairs. "I won't give back your sweets until you tell me what's going on!"

Hotaru stood up. "That's fine, although I wanted to stay some more. I've already got my reward." And with that she held up my wallet. The platter of sweets came crashing down and I ran after her.

"HEY COME BACK!"

"I'm going home. Bye, Yuka."

My mom grinned at her while I scowled. "Okay, see you soon!"

"GET BACK HERE!"

And with that the evening ended with me ending up broke, trying to chase after her car.

* * *

_:-:Ruka & Hotaru's Home; 10:37 PM:-:_

"Natsume, pick up already." A blond haired man spoke urgently to the phone while it was still dialing. _Beep~Beep~Beep~Beep~Be-_

"Hello?" The groggy voice on the other end seemed to wake up from a comfortable dream.

"It's me."

"Ruka. Why the hell are you calling so late? Don't you need to sleep?"

"I'm calling because I have some news to tell you. Geez, wake up already. I know you're still at your shop from working so much. Go home or something."

"What news?" Natsume sat up from his slumber and observed his room. Nothing changed except the addition of a blue bunny blanket wrapped around him and a coffee cup. The steam rose up and disappeared as it went higher in the air. There was no one else that was still at the shop, and his sister left early. _Did that idiotic girl really…?_

"I've got some news on Mikan-chan, the girl you hired. She's actually Hotaru's best friend, the maid of honor at our wedding. No wonder her name sounded familiar when you called to ask about it. Hotaru's out visiting Mikan right now." There was a pause on the other side of the phone.

"So," Natsume sipped the coffee cup. _Not bad for the ugly girl_. "She's related to the devil. I should really fire her sooner then."

A sigh could be heard on the other end of the line. "Natsume, don't call her 'the devil' every time. She really isn't like that. Oh yeah, I heard Hotaru say something like Mikan was a rebel or something. She got in trouble a lot at their school. Just a precaution so that you won't get on her bad side."

Natsume stood up from his chair to wash his face, which still had traces of sleep. He cradled his shiny black phone in his ear. "Ha! What could that stupid girl do to me? I'm her boss, so I can fire her anytime I wa-WHAT THE HELL?"

Ruka was in shock from listening. No one had ever gotten a strong reaction from Natsume. It was always him and his poker face speaking, no real emotion could be emitted from his face either. Ruka couldn't even believe he was best friends with him for almost a decade. He never really yelled unless he was really pissed off.

"Damn, it won't wash off."

"What did she do? Maybe it would remind you to be careful of her."

"She wrote 'BA-KA' across my face in permanent marker. And she drew whiskers too." He said as he shook quietly in anger. "I'm definitely firing her tomorrow."

Ruka suppressed his laughter and hung up on him. He made up his mind. He was going to see Natsume with Hotaru. It was going to be an interesting trip-very interesting.

The front door opened and closed. Hotaru was home.

"Hey Ruka. I earned 234 yen from Mikan." She commented while holding up the money. "She's poor-apparently."

"You earned or you stole?"

"The latter."

For sure, tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.


	3. Threats and Lies

**Hey, hey, hey! Welcome to my third chapter! You know, it's kind of hard to believe I've went this far to writing my story, you know? It's amazing once you think about it. This (as always) was written in first person point of view. But now, I'm experiencing the flow of writing! My other story (Guardian Angel) is written in third person POV (and I think that kind of style fits me better, but I won't give up on first person POV!), so check it out when you have the time! Anyway, please continue reading on! **

**8/22/2010: _I have revised and edited a few parts so that you understand it a bit better! Added in Song Pick._**

**Song Pick: Secrets by One Repulic**

* * *

**:-:A Fateful Meeting:-:**

**:-:A Gakuen Alice Fanfiction:-:**

**:-:Chapter 3:-:**

* * *

_:-:Hyuuga Fantasies; 10:47 AM; Aoi:-:_

It was a pleasant (Actually, it was as chilly as the icicles in the North Pole) morning. Mikan-chan and I started attacking the mountains of paperwork that were in the dim room. Huge stacks of papers were in our hands as we carried the them into the main room or the lobby as you may say. The lavender silk curtains, the glass tables, and the crystal vase that contained a bouquet of pink roses matched the atmosphere of the morning when we were swept away into our work.

"Ahhhh," I sipped my cup of hot chocolate. "I love this room. Mikan-chan, did you know that I bought every piece of furniture in this store? Well, nii-chan bought the wedding dresses on display and whatnot, but I renovated the rooms. I even made up the store name!"

She turned away from her work and looked at me with wide eyes. "You did? I thought-"

Her sentence was interrupted with a great bang at the door. The crash was so loud; the chime that was once hung at the door dropped to a pathetic heap on the ground. The pleasant, sunny day suddenly turned into a gloomy day with thunderstorms. At the door was a tall and dark shadow. The atmosphere turned tense as Mikan and the ominous person bore their eyes into each other. So tense, you could barely find room to breathe.

And at the door was nii-chan. With the most ridiculous get up I had ever seen. He was donned in a hot pink colored Hello Kitty cap with a face mask that sick people used. On his eyes was a pair of dark Coco Chanel sunglasses. And the last but not least, nii-chan's expression was still in a poker face mode. As always.

Mikan, who sat at the table on the other side of the room, started to roar with laughter. You could even see tears running out of her eyes as she rolled on the ground. She looked like she literally could die from laughter. _What could Mikan possibly be laughing about? _But secretly, I was laughing inside from the ridiculous get up.

"N-N-Nii-chan! Are you sick?" I stuttered as I ran over to him as I tried to contain my laughter. My shaking hand ran over his forehead. _It's not hot, his temperature is fine. So why is he wearing a face mask in the morning? He just looks like one of those child pedophiles wearing that._

"Yeah, I'm sick," A dark muffled voice came out through the mask. He casually walked over to Mikan who was standing up, washing the tears out of her face. "Ohh that was hilarious," she commented. One look at nii-chan's face sent her going through the repeated process of turning red, roaring with laughter, crying with happy tears, and rolling on the ground.

Nii-chan leaned over and grabbed on to Mikan's pink sweater. "I tell you what, ugly. This time I'll knock you flying through the roof and I don't give a damn whether you're a girl or not."

_Well, so much for being gentle with girls nii-chan._

"Go ahead jerk. Those markings were what you deserved for calling me all of those names. I'm sick and tired of it. I knew you didn't like me when you rehired me!"

_AHHH! Oh no! What am I going to do? _"H-Hey you guys-"

In unison: "Stay out of this!"

"You asked for it." Nii-chan raised a fist as she held a smirking expression on her face. My brother could be quite violent and I quickly squeezed shut my eyes. This seriously couldn't be happening.

"Hey Hyuuga," A monotone voice spoke behind me. "Don't get rough with a girl because of your anger tantrums." I quickly fluttered open my eyelids and turned my head.

All of us turned to the people at the door. The dazzling couple stood there with their hands intertwined with each others. Ruka-nii and Hotaru looked like they just stepped out of a model magazine. Ruka-nii stared in disbelief of what was happening before his eyes. Well in disbelief at what nii-chan was wearing. Hotaru, who remained the same as always, cocked her head, "So, let go of her."

Mikan wriggled out of nii-chan's grasp and ran to the couple. "HOTARU! RUKA!"

Nii-chan gave a nod to Ruka. "Ruka. Devil."

A little sputter of laughter escaped from Ruka-nii's mouth. "What in the world are you wearing? Let me see what she did to your precious little face." His hand broke away from Hotaru's grasp as he followed Natsume into the bathroom. A muted roar of laughter erupted from the bathroom when my brother slammed the bathroom door closed.

_Phew. At least the fight was over. But what is going on with nii-chan?_ I cocked my head in wonder.

I put on my hugest smile. "Welcome Hotaru-chan! You haven't been to our shop since your wedding, am I right?"

"Yes I haven't been here in a long time," She forehead flicked Mikan's head. A whimper could be heard from her. "Can you give me a minute? I need to talk to your brother."

"Umm…okay…," I uttered. _What's going on today? Everyone's acting weird. _Hotaru walked to where the boys were coming out of the restroom (Nii-chan was still wearing that ridiculous disguise. Is he practicing dressing up as a girl? Cross dressing?). She roughly grabbed Nii-chan by the shoulder and led him further into the hall.

Mikan was quietly sitting at the table that she was working at, but you could hear bits and pieces of her laughing once in a while. Ruka-nii strided over towards me. "So Aoi, where did Natsume get that heck of a cap and sunglasses?"

"I think he got them from the bottom of a charity donation box, if I know my brother as well as I do."

* * *

_:-:Hyuuga Fantasies; 10:59 AM; Natsume:-:_

"What the hell do you want, Imai?" I asked through the stuffy mask. It was unusual that she wanted to speak with me privately, and I was sniffing out another blackmail. If she was going to take a picture of my markings, I'd make sure she'd experience hell for a minute. Just for a minute.

"I'm not interested in why you look like…that," She raised an eyebrow anyway. "But if you fire her from this job, you'll know what will happen."

Was she reading my mind? How could Ruka marry this kind of person? Was he blackmailed into spending the rest of his life with her? Just the very thought of that made me sick. "And what happens if I do fire her?"

She reached a hand into her classy looking purse and grabbed a handful of pictures out. I sensed danger nearby; man, there's no way to escape now. "Hyuuga, you do know what my greatest talent is, right (besides working with technology)? This is my newest picture."

Carefully, she handed me the picture, as if she was touching something dirty. As soon as I got a quick look at the photo, I quickly crushed it in my hands. There was no way she could've taken a picture of me without my knowledge.

"Don't worry; I took extra precautions and made copies of it so you don't need to worry about it," she smiled sweetly. Slowly, I raised my head to glare at her devil's smile. I swear, the next time I had the chance; I would make her my slave. Definitely.

"I want to add a nice caption too, like 'Famous wedding designer stealing from a charity donation box?' It will be an overnight sensation," she added, her face returning normal again. "Not to mention that I've kept in touch with Sumire Shoda over the years. She'll swoon all over you when she sees that picture. You do remember her, right?"

A jolt of memory shot through my brain. _Oh yeah, the leader of "Natsume is the best" fanclub. I had to get rid of them one by one before they stopped all together. The one person who didn't stop was that annoying girl, Sumire Shoda. I had to move away without telling her and those annoying fan girls so that they would stop stalking me. _Veins popped all over my head. How the hell could I just let a woman manipulate me like that? It's no wonder I hate this woman so much. But why in the world was she protecting a clumsy girl like her?

"I take your silence as a yes-"

"One question. Why do you care about her so much?" I looked her in the eyes, but she seemed to have a loss for words. She began to move her mouth, but **somebody** had to interrupt.

"Hotaru?" Annoying girl's head popped out from the corner of the hall. "Boss." Her face turned grim once she casted a look on my face, but I could see her lips turn up when she thought I wasn't looking. Well, then, why was I looking at her in the first place? I turned my head around. I didn't want to think about it. I wanted to think about all the ways that I could keep that girl working as long as she keeps her job.

* * *

_:-:Hyuuga Fantasies; 11:09 AM; Hotaru:-:_

"Ne, Hotaru," The girl with the auburn hair asked me, gazing with her curious eyes. "What were you doing with Hyuuga in the hall? Was it something _private_?" She emphasized the word _private _in a dirty tone_._

The plastic water bottle i was holding in my hand (that still had water in it) kissed Mikan's forehead with a loud noise and flopped dead to the ground. "Do you have your answer now?"

Her lower lip stuck out at me in a pouty face. "I was just kidding! I know you would never do that!" She leaned closer anyway. "But what were you talking about?"

"About how you were about to be fired," I placed my teacup onto my plate. I sighed. She should know when she's in the danger zone. "Don't worry about it though."

She raised an eyebrow. "What did you do, Hotaru?"

"Nothing that you should worry about. Why does he want to fire you?" I silently sipped my coffee cup, quietly awaiting an answer.

The pigtailed girl leaned back in her chair and scoffed. "I think it's a personal grudge. He always stays silent and he has no expression. It's hard to tell what he's thinking."

Ahhh…but maybe it's a different feeling. She probably just doesn't realize it yet. Just then, Ruka stepped out from Natsume's office, signaling that it was time to go. I brushed off the pretend dirt on my skirt and went by his side.

"Well Mikan, it was a nice time visiting you again," Ruka said monotonously and grinned. I looked up at him to look if he really was pleased to see her again. He wasn't. It made me wonder what happened to Natsume's markings. To wonder what they Natsume and Ruka had talked about in private. But no worries, I could get the answer out of him when time took its place.

Suddenly, his hand grasped mine tightly and my heart made a leap. There was definitely something wrong. Something very wrong. He had never tried to hold my hand once (and suddenly that is) until I made him. But suddenly holding it like that, I felt that something had shaken him up. My mouth began to open and then shut involuntarily. Now wasn't the time to speak of it, especially in front of Mikan.

She stood up to escorted us to the door. "Yes, thank you very much. Thank you for visiting!" Her smile came out naturally as she held the door for us. "Please, come again next time!"

Ruka and I took a cautious step outside the door as the wintry air blasted in our faces. We strolled until the end of the street. My body stopped at the edge of the street when Ruka continued to walk. My hand tugged on his and he turned back to face me. My eyes met his ocean blue eyes and it made me melt. His eyes scanned my face.

"Is something wrong?" He asked me. "_Is there something going on?_" was what I wanted to ask, but it came out in a whisper. Blood rushed into my cheeks as my eyes met with the concrete sidewalk. I can't believe I said that!

Ruka leveled his face with mine, and I knew he hadn't heard what I had said. Thank God. "If you're ever worried about anything, you can tell me. But for now we can eat soba! Man, I am hungry! I know a great place and we can eat there!"

He pulled me hand and he faced forward, his eyes not on me anymore. "I know you'll love it!"

_He may've avoided the question, but it won't be a secret for long. _I reasoned. And then my attention wasn't on the secret he was hiding. My attention was on the scrumptious soba.

* * *

_:-:Hyuuga Fantasies; 12:57 PM; Mikan:-:_

"Sakura, come here. I got a job for you." He strolled out of his office to the place where Aoi and I were working. We had half of the paperwork done and I was busy figuring out the calculations when he walked in.

I gave him a confused look and he raised my finger to point at me. There was no way he was talking to me. _He HATES me._ He could've also sent Aoi to do the job. WHY ME? It only proves that I could never understand him. I don't think anybody would.

His eyes blinked at me. "Who else did I mean? Hurry up, slow woman." Then he turned his back on me and walked back to his room while I was seething in anger.

"That creep really irritates the hell outta me!" I growled. Aoi only gave me an encouraging smile and quickly returned to her work in a blink. _Siblings._

My stomps were distinct and clear to make a warning to him. _I really hate this jerk!_ He was at his desk, gazing his eyes at me. And in a split second, I swear I could've seen him smirk. A vein popped on my head. My palms slammed his desk as I looked at him in the eyes. "What the hell do you want?"

"Didn't I say it already? You have an errand to do, did you not hear me?" He laid down a pink piece of paper in front of me. "You have to go to a wedding that I planned, in order to make sure everything goes right. Don't mess up, like you always do."

I snatched the perfectly typed piece of paper out of his hands. "I know that, Hyuuga!" My scowling face was directed at him, but inside of me was a different story. Inside, I was truly happy. _Finally! I get to do something for once instead of just sitting there! (No offense Aoi!)_

"Now get out," were the last words I heard before I slammed the door to his room and happily skipped away. _I can't wait until the wedding of the two lovely couple! By the way, when is it? I wonder who it is..._

My skips skidded to a stop as I quickly skimmed the paper.

Wait a minute! My eyes scanned back to CLIENTS. TSUBASA AND MISAKI?


	4. Secrets and Rivals

**And I'm back from that very LONNGGG hiatus. Gomen TT^TT. So anyway, here's a long chapter (I hope I made it pretty long.) for you to enjoy to try to make up for my absences. **

**8/22/2010: _This chapter has been revised and edited by me (Well, all of the chapters are xD). Added in Song Pick._**

******Song Pick: Fireflies by Owl City**

* * *

**:-:A Fateful Meeting:-:**

**:-:A Gakuen Alice Fanfiction:-:**

**:-:Chapter 4:-:**

* * *

_:-:Natsume's Office; 11:00 AM; Ruka:-:_

"Ruka," Natsume called out to me. "When are you going to tell her? You know how she is, she'll find out soon and she'll be like a ferocious beast when she finds out that you kept it from her." He adjusted his mask to talk clearly at me. "But I can understand why you're doing it. Whatever choice you make, you'll have my support."

"I know, Natsume," I answered back from a dark corner in his room. I _did_ know. And I hated myself for hiding it from her. To be in a husband and wife relationship, you had to trust each other. Now, I was breaking that rule by not telling Hotaru that thing I was keeping from her. She had her resources (Whether it was blackmail or not) and no doubt, it would blow over soon. By then, I could be: A. murdered. B. divorced. C. slapped (That was the lightest punishment, but it was a long shot to even pray for it). or D. murdered by her and get thrown over a mountain cliff where no one would even offer me incense sticks. Yeah, I know. She _can_ get that violent. I adjusted my sweater tighter around my body. Just thinking about it made my stomach queasy. I couldn't try to fake that everything was okay. As far as I know, I am the worst actor on the planet (And it's a wonder how I can run Ruka Connections, my private eye company.).

"Natsume," I spoke slowly. "There are only two options aren't there?"

He adjusted his mask again and typed quickly into his computer. "Actually, there are three."

I looked sadly into my hands, caressing my sterling silver wedding ring. "What are they?"

He turned his raven haired hair towards my direction with his wine colored eyes staring at me (Although you couldn't see it because it was behind his sunglasses. But you could still tell). "A. You could continue to hide it from her and then let her find out. B. You could just tell her the truth. or C. You could just kill yourself right now. But that would be idiotic if you picked option C and I would stop you anyway. The most reasonable answer is to pick option A so you don't have to suffer torture from the devil. But you've made it this far, so it's your choice." Natsume shifted his position. "You came all the way here just to talk about it right? That must be why you gave a grave look at my assistant earlier."

I glanced up at Natsume and his ridiculous get up. It's a wonder why he couldn't buy his own sunglasses and cap. Even though he was my best friend, it was fun to try and tease him a bit. I gave him a wry smile. "Yeah. Not to mention, I also came here to look at your incognito disguise. That Mikan girl is quite interesting. I thought you were going to fire her today."

Natsume pulled off his hot pink Hello Kitty cap and threw it down on his carpeted floor like a wrestler does when they fling their opponent over their shoulder. "I sure as hell would love to. But then Aoi would come up crying in my face asking why I fired her and that the work was piling up. And your devil of a wife also blackmailed me not to just now," He quickly glanced at me. "Anyway, she got most of the work done, so I can use her as much as I can. I also have a big assignment for her coming up anyway. No doubt, she'll mess up and I'll have an excuse to fire her." He waved a pastel pink piece of paper. I stood up from where I was and walked over to him. My ocean blue eyes scanned the piece of paper.

"Tsubasa and Misaki? Our sempai's from middle school? They're getting married?" I was stunned with amazement. "Their wedding's going to be a bust you know. They've been rivals since elementary school and their pride's so high, no one else could top it. Why are they getting married?"

"It's the same reason why my mom arranged me a wife. A forced marriage, I think. It's hard to believe that they would fall in love with each other. Although I can't say the meeting between their parents was entirely 'coincidental'." A look of disgust passed his face. "By the way, do you have any info on the engagement?"

I sat in front of his desk in the big comfy office chairs. "I couldn't get any information on her because I wanted to ask your permission first. Are you really sure you want me to spy on your mom? She's very cautious about her actions. I didn't want to put you in any trouble if she happened to find out about it."

He put his sunglasses down from his face (I secretly laughed at the "BA-KA" etched on his forehead in permanent marker) and his head turned toward my direction with serious eyes. "Do it," was the only command he had given me. Instantly, I understood and walked out of his office. Thoughts ran through my mind until I saw Hotaru in the main lobby signaling her that it was time to go. Be calm, don't let her know. Don't do anything suspicious.

Of course, by now, I knew my acting totally flunked. After all, I took drama in high school, gotten an F, and was kicked out of it.

* * *

_:-: Ruka and Hotaru's Home; 12:04 AM; Hotaru:-:_

I knew Ruka _had_ to be lying about something. He failed in drama before (He had told me that story.) and his acting wasn't very good either. I knew the soba thing was an excuse (Although it was delicious). A thousand thoughts a minute passed through my mind as I stared at his angel face while he was sleeping. My hand brushed his golden hair aside from his sleeping eyes. I couldn't sleep with him when there were thoughts on my mind. _Ugh, I need to clear my head._ I sat up, hopped out of bed and walked slowly out of our bedroom. My soft footsteps treaded on the comfy carpet. I stopped in front of the water filterer, grabbed a glass, and filled it with water. My feet led me to the balcony. I brushed the sky blue curtains aside to look at the sky.

_It's so beautiful._ Thousands of twinkling stars littered the midnight blue sky. Even though Tokyo blocked out some of the stars, (U_gh, light pollution._ My face screwed up with disgust) it was still beautiful. _We need to travel to the country to see them clearly._ I mentally put it on my checklist to have a vacation.

Suddenly, light footsteps stepped in my direction. I closed my eyes for what seemed to be forever. Then, I felt his warm arms wrap around my stomach, his chin rested on my shoulder. My heart leapt a bit (But only for a while) and my face blushed a bright red.

"Tell me, what are you thinking?" he murmured. Both of us closed our eyes absorbing the silence before I answered back.

"I'm thinking that we should travel to the country to truly see the stars." My eyelids rose once more to see the gorgeous stars. A crescent moon shined among the stars. If only this moment could last forever…

"Mmmm. Yeah," he answered. "I think so too. I'd be good for us to escape this place for a few days to relax for a bit." He straightened up, but still kept his arms around me.

I slowly drank out of the glass of water and pushed it aside. A recurring memory came to me as I spoke, continuing to gaze at the stars. "Remember when we were dating? I think it was about the fourth time we went out together. On our class trip, remember? We got lost in the woods. And then you told me, 'If we ever got separated, just try to find the biggest star, whistle, and I'll be at your side no matter what.'"

Ruka stifled a quiet chuckle. I blushed trying to avert my eyes from him. "I remember that. I was just surprised you remembered it though. I was your 'Faithful knight in angel wings'. Then I found out your weakness on the same night too. I didn't know you were afraid of-"

I turned around. My hand cupped his lips from saying anything further. And then it all happened so fast. My hands slipped around his neck while his arms wrapped around my back. I tiptoed closer, his magnetic force drawing me in. His light blue eyes drew me in, and then, I forgot which world I was in. I was stuck between reality and fantasy. I never wanted to return. We both wanted that feeling to happen in a long time. His kiss was soft and sweet, yet it was bittersweet at the same time. It was so sweet and innocent. Both of us pulled apart at the same time, and he pulled me in closer. His lips were rougher, yet gentle in emotion, and it left my heart beating faster. At last, I hugged him tightly around his neck, closing my eyes, trying to remember this memory forever.

His hands stroked my hair as he spoke quietly in my ear. "I love you."

I tried to hide a smile but the inevitable grin broke through and I grinned like an idiot (I swear no one was there but me and Ruka, so I was safe. I would kill anybody on the spot if someone saw us like this.).

"I love you, too."

Forever.

And that was the bare truth.

* * *

_:-:Hyuuga Fantasies; 1:03 PM; Mikan:-:_

EEEHHHHHHH? TSUBASA AND MISAKI?

Now that was totally unexpected. There was absolutely _no way_ they would get married. Well, unless I've been tuning out their arguments this whole time (Which, I guess I did). I quickly scanned over the words in the pastel piece of paper. Sure enough, there were the words: _Cilents: Tsubasa Andou and Misaki Harada._

Hold on, let me rewind a bit to where I met Tsubasa and Misaki.

_:-: Mikan; 5 years old; Andou Sweets; 3:57 PM:-:_

I was very small back then. I really didn't know where I was because I didn't want to get a shot from the doctor. I flew past the door of the doctor's office and I ran away crying. I could vaguely hear my mom chase after me, but I still ran anyway, my tears blurring my vision. After I stopped my tears, I finally realized what position I was in. I was lost. I circled around the streets until the smell of food entranced me to enter the shop. When I pushed the heavy glass door inside, a friendly man greeted me. An _overly_ friendly man.

"Welcome, Mademoiselle!" The blond guy/girl greeted me. He/she shook their hands with me.

The first thing that came out of my mouth was, "Are you gay?"

I guess that was a bit impolite at that time. The blond guy/girl's face was stormed and two kids sitting on a nearby table busted into a fit of laughter. I couldn't tell how old they were at that time, but they were definitely older than I was. One had blue hair and a star under his eye (Birthmark, maybe?) and the other had long, pink bushy hair.

"For your information young lady, I am not gay. I don't know where you learned those vulgar words from, but don't use them again, you hear? Besides, I am a man. Narumi, nice to meet you." He smiled a real fake smile and shook my hand rather roughly.

"Narumi," the blue haired lad spoke up. "You know as well as me and Misaki do that you've cross dressed more than once!" The two kids looked at each other once more and bursted into a fit of laughter, but now they were literally rolling on the floor laughing. I never saw anyone rolling on the floor laughing in real life before, just in movies. I guessed that my joke back then was really funny or something. Their laughter was contagious and by that time, I was also laughing really hard. My miseries flew out of my mind. Narumi offered me a free pastry and I sat with the kids at the table laughing my head off. I didn't notice until it was sunset outside that I needed to get back to my mom. The only problem was that I didn't know where she was.

"Miiiikkkaaaannnnn!" I learned her name now, it was Misaki. Her parents were picking her and Tsubasa (The weird kid, I concluded) up from the shop. "Come over next time, okay? Byee!" I gave both of them eager waves until it dawned on me that I was still lost. I slouched over on the table, trying to hide my tears. Narumi came over, and plopped down right next to me.

"Are you lost, Mikan? I noticed that you were crying a lot before you met Tsubasa and Misaki. Are you lost?" He patted my head.

I quickly nodded my head.

Then, he took my hand, led me out of the bakery, and locked up the store. "Well, then, we've got to find your mom huh?"

"Yesh, uncle Narboomi," I slurred, trying to wipe the tears off of my face.

He knelt down next to me, trying to see my face at eye level. "So, tell me, what does your mom look like?"

I briefly described her to him. Coincidentally, my mom was yelling my name on the streets trying to find me. She was in horrible condition, crying and everything. I eagerly ran to her, calling "Mommy! Mommy!"

After our reunion (My mom had given me quite a lecture about me getting lost and all of the other things I blocked out of my head), she allowed me to go back to the sweets store once a week to play with Narumi, Tsubasa, and Misaki. They were like a second family to me. Tsubasa and Misaki always acted as my older brother and sister and Narumi often acted like a father to me. They were always fighting about who got to read me a story first, who got to walk to school with me first, who would take the first piece of fresh bread out of the oven first, so on and so forth.

The last time I saw them was last week, they were fighting about something (They _always_ had something to fight about) but I droned them out of my head because I was trying to look for a job at that point. But I sure wasn't as hell aware that they were getting MARRIED. Now that was a whole different matter. I was totally convinced that they weren't going to get out of the marriage alive. It'd be even harder to pull them apart from strangling each other.

But I was always convinced that somewhere down the line, they had dated/love each other. However, their personalities always got in the way (Misaki's pride and Tsubasa's impulsiveness). I could just tell that they were truly in love with each other, though. I squeezed the paper in my hand, determined. For the sake of my job and for them, I won't let this wedding end just like that. Never.

* * *

_:-: Tsubasa's and Misaki's wedding ceremony; Outside the church; 10:30 AM; Mikan:-:_

Hair: check. Dress: check. Shoes: check. Jewelry: check. Make sure wedding goes alright: blank.

To be honest, I wasn't sure the wedding was going to be alright. I just had to make sure they made it through the process alright. But there was something troubling me. Tsubasa and Misaki had yet ANOTHER fight last night when I called Misaki.

_:-: Day before Tsubasa's and Misaki's wedding; Mikan's room; 11:24 PM; Mikan:-:_

"I don't know what's going on through his head!" she shouted angrily into the phone. I flinched and held the phone away from my ear before listening to her again. "I just might put a stick up his ass and dump him at the altar. ARGGHHHHH!" I distinctly heard something crashing onto the floor and I winced.

"Misaki! Misaki, calm down! It's alright, you guys love each other, and you know that. And I'll be there to monitor the wedding to make sure everything goes fine. I'm a representative of Hyuuga Fantasies, you know! It's my job as your sister and wedding assistant. So everything will be okay. I promise!" I bit my bottom lip. I hoped it wasn't a white lie.

"Oh my gosh, Mikan. Okay," She took deep breaths on the other line. "I promise I'll keep it together for tomorrow. I love him, I love him, I love him until the devil takes away his body and drags him into hell." I giggled. I could tell that she was trying to relax and meditate. "Thank you Mikan. I'm sure with you there, everything will be fine."

"Alright then. Get a good night's rest and I'll see you tomorrow, okay? Bye!" I pressed the end call button, sincerely hoping that everything will be okay and flopped back on my bed.

_:-: Day of Tsubasa's and Misaki's wedding; Inside the bride and the groom's room; 10:37 AM; Mikan:-:_

"HEEEYYYYY GUYYYSSS!" I slammed the door open so loud that my entrance was clear. I shouted in my overly loud tone. "It's wedding day! Aren't you excited?"

Uh-oh.

My face froze with my eager smile. I could just tell the atmosphere was bombed over and World War III took place, just inside a small room. And then I cringed, opening my eyes.

Tsubasa was standing against the wall on the other side of the room dressed in his tuxedo, opposite of Misaki who was dressed in a strapless white wedding gown. Both were ready to go. I just hoped that it was going to be okay. She was sitting in a chair not looking at him. Tsubasa gave me a wry smile. "Hey, Mikan. Glad you're here."

I gave a tight nod to Tsubasa. "So, you guys got in another fight again?"

"Need, you ask? It's kind of obvious isn't it? The idiot wouldn't put down his Xbox 360 controller and now the wedding's running late!" Misaki teared up. _Thank god, I replaced her regular mascara with a 100% waterproof one._

I sat next to her, putting a comforting arm on her shoulder. "Okay, okay. Don't be like this Misaki. This is your wedding day, isn't it? It's the one day you won't forget in your entire life."

She turned to look up at me, tears still in her eyes. "Yeah but-!"

Tsubasa quickly interrupted her and she gave him a scowl. "Look, I already said I was sorry, didn't I? I really needed to relax from all of this wedding crap, and you were so uptight about which flowers went best with the church hall, blah blah blah. I got so tired. You weren't even yourself anymore!"

Misaki put her head on my shoulder and cried once more. It was a really uncomfortable moment. And then, an idea came up in my mind.

I patted her shoulder and began to speak. "You know, when we were really little, I remember we went to a camp ground for the summer. You know to have fun and catch fireflies and stuff."

Misaki and Tsubasa both turned their heads to look at me, with curious gazes in their eyes. I didn't know if they remembered the story well enough, but I did. I continued.

"One night, all three of us went out to catch fireflies. I was about 12 at that time, remember? It was so pretty. We caught a lot; I couldn't even count them all. But I wasted all of my energy catching them and I was sound asleep. You guys carried me back to the tent, and then went back to the fireflies. It was late at night and I suddenly woke up, dreaming about the fireflies and what happened to them. I ran back to the spot, but I stopped right behind this huge tree. I saw the shadows of you guys sitting in the meadow."

I looked at both of their faces, watching their reactions. Both of them blushed at what was going to happen next, clearly remembering what had happened that night. _Perfect._

"You guys had the firefly jar in between you. You guys released at the fireflies at once! I was so disappointed that we wasted all of that effort toward catching them, but I really couldn't say anything. It was a very pretty sight. Then, I remember it clearly. Tsubasa took out his expo marker and drew something on Misaki's hand. Then, you guys-"

"That's not fair! You were looking!" Both of them shouted at once, blushing. They looked back at each other and smiled shyly. Then they started to laugh. A huge smile speared on my face. "Well, you guys know what happened next, so I'm not gonna continue."

I stood up, grabbed Tsubasa's hand, and placed it on Misaki's. "It's important to love a person for who they are, embrace their flaws, and accept it all. I think that's what's important in a relationship."

A look passed between both of them and they both hugged me. "Thank you Mikan," Misaki said. "I think I would've never gotten through this day without you. I don't know how to say thanks."

"Me too," Tsubasa answered.

I smiled widely. "It's okay. As long as you guys have a blissful and happy marriage, I'll be tens of times happy!"

They both smiled happily at me when I left their room. As I shut their door, I whispered to myself, "Mission Accomplished!"

_:-: Day of Tsubasa's and Misaki's wedding ceremony; The actual ceremony; 11:30 AM; Natsume:-:_

"I do."

"You may now kiss the bride while I go get some lunch." The pastor smiled widely while the audience laughed in unison.

Misaki hopped into Tsubasa's arms and gave him a chaste kiss. Everyone got out of their seats and cheered. Everyone except me, of course. I was slumping back in the seats. I still couldn't believe that idiot of a person could manage to wrap it up perfectly. I spied her out of the corner of my eye. Mikan was jumping up and down and everything, like a ridiculous kindergartner. She was dressed up in a caramel brown dress matching her skin perfectly; her hair was put down and layered. She was simply gor-

Scratch that. What the hell am I saying? A dark look crossed my face and I stalked my way out of the church. I could hear footsteps echoing behind me until her overly bright face appeared under mine.

"Hyuuga! I didn't know you came!" She said as she tried to keep up with my pace, her animosity toward me temporarily forgotten in the happy occasion.

I growled. "I _had_ to come in case you messed up and that would be bad for my reputation."

She _still_ smiled, even after I said that. "Well, whatever. I feel like that's supposed to be a good thing! By the way, you really look like a gentleman today. I know all the bridesmaids were staring at you. I could practically read their minds." She pulled my hand back to the church and I twitched. "Come on, we're gonna miss the flower tossing!" She ran towards the entrance.

As we were running back, I had the burning sensation to touch her hair. The way it flowed in the wind and ended out in curls.

DAMMIT! What the hell am I thinking! Dear God, I'm sorry I never believed you, but please exorcise the spirit who posses me. I don't ever want it back. Never.

While Misaki was doing the flower toss, I was standing next to the clumsy idiot when (Haha, coincidentally) her heel broke. I had to catch her in my arms. Her scent smelled like wild lavender and it felt like I was dreaming. (Dammit, I did it again!) Then, I realized she caught something in her arms.

The flower banquet.

Everyone went absolutely wild like those irritating monkeys in the zoos. But their message was clear. It sounded something like "Oooohhhhh, Mikan, you're going to get married soon!"

She looked up at me holding her arms and shook herself away from me. We were standing awkwardly next to each other while she continued to hold the banquet.

A thought ran through both of their minds: _No way._


	5. Updates and Riches

**Hey! It's Musinglaiying back in action! (Okay, that sounded really lame, like something off of Power Rangers or something O.o) **

**Stats (If you were confused):**

**Natsume:**** Knows he's getting married; does not know his to-be fiancée's name; knows Mikan Sakura's full name; knows his to-be fiancée is a friend of Kaoru's (his mom) daughter.**

**Mikan:**** Knows she's getting married; Knows a guy named Natsume is her fiancé; Knows her boss's last name is Hyuuga; Knows her fiancé is a friend of Yuka's (her mom) son; Work's in Hyuuga's bride shop**

**Lol! It seems like Mikan knows more than Natsume! :D That's contradictory, since Natsume is the smart one after all. Well, it's because Yuka had a slip of the tongue, but that's okay. Natsume will know in time. In time. :D**

**8/22/2010: _I have revised and edited this chapter (And the other ones as well) so please enjoy your perfectly grammarized (I hope it is!) chapter! Added in Song pick._**

**Song Pick: Eternal Love by Sayuri Sugawara**

* * *

**:-:A Fateful Meeting:-:**

**:-: A Gakuen Alice Fanfiction:-:**

**:-: Chapter 5:-:**

* * *

_:-:Mikan's House; 8:47 AM; Mikan:-:_

_Beep~beep~beep~beep~beep~beep~beep~bee-_

"Ughhhhh," I mumbled while I tried to hit the snooze button. "Just let me sleep in today!"

But it was impossible. The sun's warming rays of light shone through the pastel yellow curtains of my bedroom, making it even more impossible to sleep. On top of that, I was starting to feel the effects of waking up from a deep sleep. My whole body ached, and yet getting up seemed like an obstacle. On top of that, my cell phone rang constantly. I'm pretty sure it self-destructed, because it stopped ringing about two minutes ago. Now my alarm won't stop ringing and-

"Miiiiii~iiiiiiiikaaaaa~nnnnnn!" The bright and cheerful person I had modeled after bursted in. "Time for some breakfast!"

"Ngggghhhh," I shoved my head into my pillow. This wasn't a good day mom. I have my off days too! I'm not getting out of bed, no matter what you say-

"You know, it's such a shame. I cooked my special breakfast dish today, your favorite. Ahhh, I just finished my portion and I'm still extra, super duper hungry. It's still hot off the frying pan, you know," she stood by my door.

I dashed out of my bedroom door and tripped at the bottom of the staircase.

It turns out we didn't have the special breakfast dish today. Thanks, mom.

"Mom," I still happily munched on my breakfast anyway. "There's only three more months and a week, right?"

Her head snapped up from her fancy-shmancy, glossed magazine. "For what?" She grabbed the sugar packet and started pouring in the whole thing into her cappuccino. I stared at her with a knowing look as she sipped her coffee. A light bulb could practically be seen flashing above her head when she got my telepathic message. She smiled (It looked real phony-like). "That's right. There's only three more months to go until we can officially cancel your engagement. Although my friend would be quite disappointed as her son also hasn't married at this age," She looked at me, hesitant for a minute. "Are you sure you don't want to just cancel your job and just go to see him for the first time?"

I shook my head. "You know, that just isn't going to happen soon. So, I won't meet him, and I won't get married to a man I don't know," I smiled at her. "I did say that right?"

Yuka placed her coffee cup down on the table softly. "I just wish you would take it easy for a while. Enjoy being a wife. You've always been the one who cares for others a lot," she said that with a sad smile.

"Mom, you're like those mothers from those crazy manga series," I blinked at her. "Really, I'll be fine." My eyes quickly flashed over to the digital clock. "Oh shoot, gotta go to work mom. Bye!" My hands yanked the keys from the hanger and slammed the door in a matter of 15 seconds. Quite a record, if I do say so myself.

Oh, that's right. This morning, someone was trying to call me. I fumbled in my pockets for my phone until I found it. Dang, I was so sure it self destructed so it would give me a chance to get a new phone. Call log: 59 missed calls. From who? Aoi. Why would she need me so early in the morning? I still had at least an hour left before work. My fingers checked the messages on my phone. Surprisingly, there were only two compared to Aoi's 59 missed calls.

_From: _Aoi

_To: _Mikan

_Message #1: _Come 2 the store! URGENT! Need help! CALL BACK IMMEDIATELY!

_From:_ Aoi

_To:_ Mikan

_Message #2:_ WAKE UP ALREADY! MAJOR TROUBLE!

Man, from her messages, it really seems like we're in major heaps of poop. But I don't have to work until 9:30-10 AM.

…

I'm going to head to Andou Sweets first.

* * *

:-:9:02 AM; Andou Sweets; Mikan:-:

_*Door Bell rings*_

Ahhhh. My face was devoured in a delicious smell of sweets. This truly was the way sweets were supposed to be made. I could smell the handmade (Delicious!) doughnut holes, the iced cinnamon rolls, hot chocolate chip cookies, fresh iced lemon cakes, moist Madeleine's, delectable pound cakes, and much more. Just smelling it was making my stomach growl. I swear, sometimes I can be a beast (Pun intended). Literally.

"Ah! Mikan! My my! Good morning!" Narumi came out clean from the back of the kitchen. (Not like those bakers in the movies where they come out with flour streaked on their face, eh?)

"Narumi! Gosh, it feels like I haven't seen you in forever!" An expression of glee stayed on my face as I took Narumi in for a bear hug. Even _he_ smelled like his store. It could be like a fragrance. A ladies' attraction scent. If Narumi made this kind of scent to sell, he'd already be retired and laughing manically in his wheelchair.

"Moi too!" Narumi flashed me a smile. I casually walked over to my usual table, the one by the window. Snow badly frosted the edges of the window, but the view was pretty. It was like a shopping street in New York, just not as busy. "How's business?"

"Business is surprisingly picking up! Must be all those recommendations that you sent out! You don't sound so good though," He placed a plastic clear box full of Madeleine's and a paper coffee cup of hot chocolate in front of me. I muttered out a small "Thank you" and opened the box of Madeleine's. I chewed a small part of it and I was in heaven. He sat next to me, staring out the window too. "Say…Mikan…," He started off.

"Hmmm?"

"What do you suppose Tsubasa and Misaki are doing on their honeymoon right now?"

I stared at him, wide-eyed in the face. "Narumi…you actually wonder about this stuff?"

He punched me in the head. "Not like that!"

"Ohhh," I busted out laughing and rubbed my forehead. "I was about to say…," I trailed off in my train of thought.

"I meant, where do you think they are? I couldn't really come to their actual wedding ceremony that day because the store couldn't be closed. It wasn't a holiday. I could only come after it closed," He sighed, and I could tell he deeply regretted it. He was like a second dad to all of us. "They left without a trace."

I munched on another moist and buttery Madeleine. "Maybe they didn't want to tell anyone because they didn't want to be checked up on. I mean, I know where they're going but I don't know exactly where." I covered my mouth in shock as he widened his eyes at me. Damn my big mouth!

He grabbed my shoulders, making me look at him directly in the face. "You know where they are?"

"Narumi! You're like their obsessive dad! Calm down! Anyway, they're on their honeymoon and having a good time, so I think they're going to be okay. Don't worry!"

He slumped back in his seat again. I gingerly pushed a napkin over to him. You know, just in case he needed it. You can't really tell when Narumi was going to become all emotional. It was a while before he spoke again. "But other than me, you look pretty awful too." He lifted his head and directed his blue eyes at me. "Is there something up?"

I sighed and put my chin in my hand. "There's really no one in this town to talk to except you and a few other friends to talk to. The rest are like almost strangers and old classmates." I couldn't tell him about my getting a new job just yet. I had to wait for Tsubasa and Misaki to celebrate!

"Don't you have that best friend you always talk about…what's her name?"

"Oh! Hotaru?"

"Yeah! What happened to her?"

"Oh…I think she went on a country side trip with Ruka for like a 'winter' vacation. Hotaru probably brought all of her machines and stuff with her to keep herself entertained over there."

"Is that so?" Narumi stood up and walked behind the counter. "Say! Mikan!"

"Huh?" I looked up at him from my seat curiously while picking up another Madeleine to eat.

"Would you like to test out my newest creation? It's a coffee tiramisu! I let a few customers try it yesterday and they all said it taste tres good!"

"Sure thing!" I said with a smile. I know it's bad for you to have sweets in the morning, but a little sugar never hurt anyone (Now, if you're diabetic or you're like Nick Jonas, then that's a different story).

"Here!" He handed me a plate. The cake was composed with a light brown looking coffee cream smoothly layered in between two spongy layers of vanilla cake. The top was mostly made of cream with white chocolate and milk chocolate shavings on top. I curiously forked out a piece of the cake and slowly chewed on it. The creamy substance blended in with soft spongy cake. The coffee flavor just bursted in my mouth. It felt like Starbucks, just food wise. Delicious.

"So? How is it?" He asked me with wide eyes.

"Gosh Narumi. I don't know what to say. It's really really good!" I stared in amazement at it and took another bite. It was really awesome!

"Hehe. I was planning to make it a special and put it at a low price you know? Law of Supply and Demand!" He sang out loud.

His singing reminded me of a certain American country singer, so I had to sing aloud a song! "…She wears short skirts, I wear tee shirts! She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers!

"…Dreaming about the day when you wake up and find that what you're, looking for, has been here the whole time!" His voice cracked at the high note.

"Can't you see that I'm the one who understands you? Been here all along so why can't you see?" We sang together and covered our eyes.

"YOU BELONG WITH MEEE~~!" Our arms spread out wide towards each other. "Standing by, waitin' at your back door!" Narumi quickly wrote 'STALKER!' in permanent marker on a piece of cardboard and held it up while we were dancing. We laughed halfway throughout the song, but we continued singing. People passing by gave us weird looks and didn't come in. But one guy that saw us gave us a thumbs up. You know what?

We gave him four thumbs up. AND with two smiles. Yeah we totally pwned him.

After singing a few songs out loud (All by Taylor Swift I might add :D), Narumi made a single statement.

"We'd totally pwn Taylor Swift, you know?"

And I totally agreed on that.

* * *

_:-:9:48 AM; Hyuuga Fantasies; Mikan:-:_

Morning rush was coming in, so I had to leave Narumi alone. What a bummer. Well, I had to come in for work anyway. If not, that stupid boss would fire me for the second time, I wouldn't get any money (Hotaru still owes me!), and I would get engaged to some mysterious guy. (The mental image is that he looks fat, nerdy, and short. No way. No way. NO WAY!)

I sipped my hot chocolate from Narumi and wondered aloud outside of the store, "What the hell is so urgent for me to come in? I don't see anything wrong."

Yup. The bridal dresses were still there. No one gave a crap about stealing the display crystal chandelier, so it was still there. The roses were still there (Of course, it was fake too), so I didn't see anything wrong. I pushed the doors of the store, drinking some of my hot chocolate, thinking everything was okay as I stepped up the three carpeted stairs that led me to the main lobby.

Of course it wasn't. Now I understand why Aoi crazily called me 59 times.

Aoi was frantic and speechless standing in the corner when she looked at me. A slick black haired woman with Nine West sunglasses (She looked like those creepy cats in haunted movies!) made Hyuuga kneel on the floor. Polishing her neon pink pointy shoes.

And I swear, Hyuuga would never do that for a woman. Until now.

I dropped my hot chocolate.

* * *

_:-:10:11 AM; Hyuuga Fantasies; Aoi:-:_

I had somehow managed to pull nii-chan away from the troublesome situation to confront him.

"I knew it. We should've closed up today," He said out of the blue. I was in mid pace before looking back at him again.

"What's important is how she found us here! Don't tell me…," I paused to look at my brother. He stared back at me, obviously thinking what I was thinking. A word passed though our minds, answering my question.

_Mom._

"Don't tell me…mom did this," Nii-chan furrowed his eye brows.

I started pacing around the room again. "I'm not exactly sure, but she _did_ meet her before. And she liked her too. Anyway, this is trouble for us. I mean, she was one of your stalkers! I heard she even consulted a famous fortune teller about you, asking if you guys would be together forever! That's just creepy!"

Nii-chan simply closed his eyes and leaned back on the desk. "There isn't a problem I can't fix. I'll get rid of her. She promised if I did anything she wanted, she would stop."

"Do you really think she'll stop? She _is_ Sumire Shoda-sama after all." He paused his thinking to look up at me.

"Bad plan. Let's think of another method."

"But none of our methods worked! You even insulted her and she STILL came stalking back," I rolled my eyes. "Right now, Mikan's cleaning up her mess and stalling for us. And I had to call her nearly 70 times just to get her to come over here. I've almost wasted my minutes!"

"Why'd you call her?" His face screwed up in confusion.

"I don't know, I just thought she would help us or something-to distract Sumire, you know?" I sighed and put my thin hand on my forehead. "For now, I guess you could sneak out the window or something."

"Maybe the airhead might help us."

I turned my head towards him. Another telepathic thought was sent to my head before I grinned at him. "You know, nii-chan, you're smart."

He smirked. "Of course."

* * *

_:-:10:11 AM; Hyuuga Fantasies; Mikan:-:_

"Gosh! I hate cleaning carpet!" I yelled at the floor like it was all of it's fault for spilling my perfectly brewed hot chocolate. Due to my miss-slip of spilling my hot chocolate all over the floor, I got lectured by the boss and was instructed by him to clean it up and then he disappeared with his sister. Damn it. Doesn't he know how hard it is to clean carpet? I sighed. Well, I did spill it in the first place so it's only reasonable that I clean it. But it's super hard to clean stains off of carpet!

But it was weird. The mysterious cat lady was sipping Earl Grey tea out of the our most valuable china cup and saucer. I peered at the creepy cat woman with a perm out of the corner of my eye. I don't get it. Why was she so special? Sure, she was wearing strong Coco Chanel No. 5 perfume (It was so strong, I had to wear a face mask, but I made up an excuse that I was cleaning the floor) and carrying around a Coach purse. And yeah, her shoes might be from Wet Seal. And her outfit might be from BCBG. But so-

And then it clicked. She was fricking loaded. Ohhhhh…so that's why the infamous cocky Hyuuga was polishing her shoe. Damn gold digger.

"Hey," The creepy cat woman spoke out of no where. Even though her eyes were hidden behind her brand name sunglasses, I could still see her irises. They beamed light neon green. An involuntary shiver zipped down my spine. I stared at her wide eyed, dumbly lifting my index finger to point at myself. "Yeah, you," She replied again.

"Oh! Uhh…hi?" I replied dumbfounded. I mentally slapped myself inside my head.

"How long have you been here?"

"Um…approximately three weeks."

"So does that mean you talk to Hyuuga-sama a lot?"

My brain froze. Did…she just…address him as…Hyuuga…SAMA? I shook the thought from my head, trying to concentrate on cleaning the stubborn stain on the floor. "We barely talk," I laughed nervously. "I only really ever talk to his sister. She's nice."

"I see…"

"Ummm!" I had to say something that was on my mind! "May I know why you're here?"

She just simply stared at me.

And I was panicking internally. "Umm…it's-not-that-I'm-nosy-or-anything! I-was-just-curious-because-Natsume-never-treated-a-girl-so-special-like-that! He's-usually-a-big-jerk, so-I-thought-that-it-was-really-weird-that-he-even-had-the-balls-to-polish-your-shoes-for-you!" I took a deep breath and composed myself. "That's all."

To my surprise, she caught on all of my words and chuckled. "Hyuuga-sama sure has hired an interesting person," She sipped her tea before answering me again. "My name is Sumire Shoda. You can call me Sumire. Since you're so interested, I'll tell you the love story of me and my dream prince!"

...Hyuuga-sama…Love story…Hyuuga a prince…dream prince...and creepy cat lady…NO WAY! All this information was over-processing in my mind. I felt like it was going to explode and kill half of Tokyo's population! I twitched as I lowered my face mask.

She patted to the seat next to her, signaling me to fit down. "Don't clean the floor all day! You need a break too!" I was in a middle of a trance for five seconds before actually listening to her.

"O-Okay Sumire-san…"

"Anyway when I was little…"

* * *

_:-:Sumire's Memories:-:_

When I was little, I believed all of those stories about love. Cinderella, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, The Princess and the Frog, The Little Mermaid (Or, at least, the happy ending from Disney), etc. I truly believed in it. But…as the youngest mistress of father's business, no boys were attracted to me. I had a hard time fitting in with others because they would always avoid me. But there was always this one boy who would stick with me, no matter what.

No, not Hyuuga.

He was Kokoro Yome.

It was quite weird though. I met him when I had violin lessons back then. He was even better than I was, but there was something weird about him. He never smiled. He always showed a straight face. And even when they were complimenting him, he didn't even crack a smile. It made me boiling mad. Perhaps, it was just the childish, impulsive part of me. I couldn't say anything, because it'd just be weird if you just came up to a person and say, "Just fucking smile!" So I bottled it up. But you know, after bottling it up for a long time, the jealousy (In my case) just got bigger and bigger. Here he was being better than everyone else and he wasn't even smiling at all! He wasn't even acting like he deserved it! Shouldn't he appreciate that?

After his violin act at a concert one night, everyone was clapping for him. He didn't bow or anything, and just left the stage in a matter of seconds.

And that was when I HAD it. I went up to him and slapped in straight in the face backstage.

"Hey! There are so many people clapping for you out there and you didn't even bow or smile or anything!" I was absolutely fuming. So much that my hands were almost shaking.

He just simply stood there and held his face. After a while, he spoke to me again. "Why…should I smile? Why would I smile at people's treachery? At how wicked the human heart is? Why should I? Why? Can you answer that?" His chocolate brown eyes looked into mine, and I think, for the first time in my life, I was scared.

But I understood.

"Silly, you forgot," I simply said. He cocked his head in confusion at me. "Although, it's true the human heart is wicked and fickle," I looked at him. "But it can be the most forgiving and beautiful heart anyone has ever seen. So smile, okay? Because somewhere out there, someone is having it worse than you. And you have to keep your spirits up to help them!"

"And now, Miss Sumire Shoda will perform!" The announcer outside called out on the microphone.

I simply escaped the scene, not looking back to leave him thinking with his thoughts. But I think, before I left, he whispered out a little "Thank You."

After I played, I didn't see him. But I still remembered that night and I was smiling. I remember it.

_:-:Alice Private Academy; Grade 9; Class A; Sumire:-:_

Shortly after the concert, I quit. Maybe it was because that Kokoro Yomi guy quit too. There wasn't really any competition and I quickly rose to the top. That wasn't fun at all, so I quit. But I never did see that Kokoro guy again. Or so I thought.

I think I was in science when I met him again. I was so focused on the lab; I didn't even notice it when the teacher announced that there was a new transfer student. I held a scalpel in my hand, about to strike when he tapped on my shoulder. I had a perfectly legit reason to scream, "BLOODY MURDER!" and make a faint scratch mark on his check when I spun around on the person who tapped on my shoulder.

"Oww…Take it easy, Sumire. It's me, Koko. I transferred here today."

Koko? As in...Kokoro Yomi? That Koko? I gasped.

He got a bit mature since I last met him and his features got a little angular. But there was one difference from the little boy and the boy that grew up.

He was smiling. Perfect teeth and everything.

Of course, he changed. His hair was a light caramel brown and his hair was kinda spiky. He was a good measure of 5"6', compared to my measly 5"2'. And maybe he was a bit…cuter? NO DON'T SAY THAT! But…I would be lying if I said I didn't blush…

"SUMIRE SHOUDA! I saw that! Go escort the transfer student that you just injured to the infirmary! Now!" The old teacher barked at me. I just simply looked at him and both of us shrugged our shoulders, laughing and walking away. I would take every chance to skip class. Even if it meant going to the place where it smells like a hospital.

He was a loyal friend and partner to me. Whenever I was alone, he would always stick to my side. Whenever I was sad, he would cheer me up. I never had a best friend like him, so I was blissfully happy. He was…different. After I saw him smiling, it seemed like he changed. It…seemed like he wasn't afraid of anything at all. And then…I contemplated the fact that I might have fallen for him. But I quickly shook that feeling from my mind. There wasn't anyway that I could come to love him! Impossible! There was a fine line between friends and lovers, and I was only willing to be his friend. Or did I really think that? I quickly hid those feelings and gave everyone the appearance that I was okay.

There was someone different than Koko, though. Someone else who also had caught my attention.

Hyuuga.

_:-:Alice Private Academy; Grade 11; Class A; Sumire:-:_

Natsume was the new student on the campus with his sister, Aoi. As soon as he walked into that building, I swear, every single girl was fawning over him…okay, I admit even I did that too. It was only on short occasions that we spoke, but I thought they were the best. Of course, I told Koko all about it, but it seemed like he always had this fake smile whenever I talked about him. Weird…

That year could've been the best or worse year I've had in my entire life. I think it was about spring time when one of the assholes of the school confessed to me. Of course, I had my share of confessions, but this was different. I was out of class just to get a drink of water that day when the asshole bumped into me there. His breath smelled of liquor and I was thinking that he was drinking in school. I was planning a quick escape but he had caught me in his grasp. I tried to struggle, but I couldn't move. Just as I was about to kick him _there_, a dark and low voice came out of no where.

"That's not the way to treat a girl."

You guessed it, it was Hyuuga.

I turned towards him and asked him a question. "Natsume? Why are you here?"

"I don't know. The author made me come in at this scene. And she made me come in with a low voice. And save you or something." **(AN: Thanks Natsume, for spoiling my plan. =-=)**

He walked towards the drunken dude with his hands in his pockets and simply kicked him in the crotch. I simply dusted off invisible dust on my shoulder. Hyuuga and I dragged him to the principal's office and snitched on him like the good people we are. Then, we walked out of there like nothing happened. But still, I felt like we were a good team. Silence soon befell us and I quickly looked for a conversation starter in my head.

"Hyuuga?" My cheeks tinted pink.

"Hn." He grunted.

"Thanks for…back there," I avoided eye contact with him. After all, it was THE Natsume Hyuuga I was talking too!

We walked a several minutes together in silence until we reached an intersection. My class was to the right, history. Just as I was about to turn, Natsume's velvet voice stopped me.

"Hey Shouda," He started off, looking at me with his crimson orbs.

"Y-Yeah?"

"Girls like white roses right?"

I gasped! How could he know that _I_ liked them too? Therefore I answered: "Yeah…I like them too. A lot." Then I turned and power walked to my class. Blushing furiously.

Later that day, I found a white rose in my locker. I was absolutely convinced that Natsume was the one who put it there. Although there was no note, I was sure. Positively sure.

That's why I would always remember the date: February 5.

* * *

_:-:10:32 AM; February 5; Hyuuga Fantasies; Mikan:-:_

"…And that's why I'm here!" She beamed. "To celebrate with Natsume Hyuuga on the day he gave me that white rose!" She leaned back in her chair. "Didn't you love that story?"

Yeah, I sure as hell concentrated. Up to the part when she said the word "Natsume".

"So, did you say the boss's name…is…Natsume Hyuuga?"

"Yep!"

_Shit._


	6. Facebook and Camps

**Heyyyyy! This is a continuation of the last chapter! **

**8/22/2010: _This entire chappie has been revised, edited, and has been added to by none other than the amazing (Narcissistical xD) Musinglaiying! Added in Song Pick._**

******Song Pick: Love Song by Sara Bareilles**

* * *

**_Previously…_**

_Yeah, I sure as hell concentrated. Up to the part when she said the word "Natsume"._

_"So, did you say the boss's name…is…Natsume Hyuuga?"_

_"Yep!"_

_Shit._

* * *

**:-:A Fateful Meeting:-:**

**:-:A Gakuen Alice Fanfiction:-:**

**:-:Chapter 6:-:**

* * *

_:-:February 5; 10:33 AM; Hyuuga Fantasies; Mikan:-:_

Really, this was too much.

"Hey! Mikan-san!" Sumire shook my shoulders. "Are you okay?"

I stopped responding after she confirmed the boss's name. I had only blanked out for a minute to get my thoughts together before replying to her. "Hmm? Yeah?"

"Oh god! You didn't respond so I had to make sure you were okay," She cocked her head at me. "You're okay, right?"

I nodded twice. At that moment, the door the siblings were in, squeaked. Both of us turned our heads toward the noise. Sumire's eyes were full of expectation to see Natsume. Mine were dull and tired from listening about him.

At last, only Aoi popped out of the hallway. No signs of her brother. "Hi guys!" She smiled cheerfully. "Natsume called off working today, so you can go home Mikan!" I snapped out of my trance and pushed aside thoughts of my boss being engaged to me. For now. But it was weird too. The siblings NEVER closed on a normal day. It was awfully weird.

"Seriously?" I stood up from my seat and grabbed my bag. I was ready to make an escape for it.

"Yeah, you just need to grab some of your stuff in the room where we eat lunch. You left something in there," She hooked her thumb in the direction of the long hallway.

I wasn't sure if I did forget something (I probably did), but regardless, I listened to Aoi and checked if I was missing anything. However, I did stay in the hallway to listen to Sumire and Aoi's conversation. I flattened myself against the wall. Needless to say, I felt like a ninja.

"Aoi!" Sumire's voiced echoed. "Do you know where Natsume is?"

I could picture the uneasy look on Aoi's face, but I was hiding behind a wall so that didn't really help. "Eto…Gomen Sumire. Natsume left twenty minutes ago because he was feeling sick."

"Then why didn't he come out through the front door instead?"

"Oh…he said he didn't want to interrupt you guys talking. That's all."

"Oh…okay. Thanks. I guess I'll see you tomorrow or something." Her heels led the way down the carpet stairs to the tiled floor and out the door. Aoi simply sighed and I escaped the scene.

When I arrived at the lunch room, it was clean and spotless, as always. I looked on the glass table. Nothing was there. I looked at the counter. Nothing was there. I looked in the refrigerator and nothing was there. I looked everywhere for something of mine, but there was nothing there! I walked down the long hallway again to speak to Aoi. "Hey Aoi! There's nothing in the lun-!"

Suddenly, the squeaky door opened and a firm hand shot out. The hand closed on my nose and mouth, blocking my airways. I was almost choking. He (I assumed from the strong strength) dragged me into the room and quietly shut the door. I tried to scream, but I couldn't. My hands tried releasing his arms from my face, but he was too strong. He backed me up to the wall, trying to keep me quiet. With my last remaining piece of energy, I tried to turn my head to the left and tried to look at the perpetrator's face. Even doing _that_ was hard enough. I eventually managed to look at the jerk for a second and found vermilion irises glaring down at me. I should've known! It was that jerk.

The jerk in question that my mom had arranged for me to have an engagement with! But I was still uncertain about it; I had to ask my mom later. However! He said he left just to avoid Sumire! That's just rude!

It angered me even more. So, with my imperfect teeth, I bit him on the hand and stomped (With all of my effort) on his foot.

He immediately pulled his hands away from me and crouched down to cover his foot while staying quiet, only releasing a few grunts here and there. I stayed at least one foot away from him. He was wearing a black coat and a white graphic tee shirt, the usual uniform for the gothic boss. But then again, I wouldn't exactly call him emo either. He never wore that makeup and he has quite a temper. I've never seen him wear anything other than black, white, or grey.

"Tch! Damn! What'd you do that for?" He glared at me with his blood red colored eyes. It even actually scared me a little.

I stepped an inch closer to him. "Well, if you found that some creepy stalker guy held you from behind and he was super strong, I bet you would do that too!" I retorted and crossed my arms. "Anyway, I thought you left!"

The raven haired lad seemed to recover in a matter of seconds. He stood at a full force of 5"8'. I felt threatened due to my height of 5"4', only four inches short. Tch, dang! He took a confident step towards me. "I told Aoi to tell that to Shouda."

He took another step, while I backed up one. His face was just like a murder's, except mixing up the Joker's face and Chucky's face, and maybe the mask from Saw. Yeah, like that. I gulped. I DID NOT want to be killed in a room where by killer boss tortures me by watching Barney. And yes, I have heard of some cases where you can die of boredom.

"And if I was assaulted by a creepy stalker killer," He continued talking with his low voice. "I know judo. I would kill him in seconds."

I didn't doubt that. And I secretly suspected that I was his next "creepy stalker killer".

He took two steps towards me; I quickly took three short steps back. I tried stalling him by asking him another question.

"Then _why_ did you tell Aoi to tell that to Sumire? What, you scared or something?" I took a slight glance behind me. I was almost backing up against a wall! Damn! It's like an icky situation in those mangas! I scrunched my face. Except I was in a room with a mass serial killer, that I would never make out with.

"Because I hate dealing with fussy people who cling to me," He replied darkly. I hit the wall with a slight bump, blinked once, and found myself looking into the crimson eyes of the mass serial killer. _Fuck._

He suddenly bammed his arm against the wall. Hard. So forcefully that I could feel a slight breeze against my cheek. I shut my eyes tight. A few seconds later, no movement was heard, so I lifted one eyelid. The bastard was still staring at me. His devilish expression irked me, so I popped open both eyes and looked at him. He finally spoke again.

"'What, you scared or something?'" Quoting my exact words. That was it. All of my pent up anger inside was released in the form of my hand…

…an inch away from his face. He didn't even bat an eyelash! Dang!

Suddenly, the creaky door opened and we paused what we were doing (Not that we were really doing anything from the start.). A calm Aoi entered, looked at us, and flew out the door. A muted "Sorry!" could be heard from behind the slammed door. I looked at the bastard in a "Will-you-let-me-go-this-is-kinda-awkward" kind of face. He scowled at me before finally releasing his arm. I could finally take a breath before I realized that I was _even_ holding in air.

Natsume immediately opened the door to see an eavesdropping Aoi, her ear leaning into the door. "We had a 'talk', Aoi," He emphasized the word. "Nothing else. Quit your delusions." He had a sideways glance at me.

Aoi rebutted by sticking her tongue out at him. Then, she stepped towards me. "Sorry Mikan, I had to have Nii-chan to get into this room to discuss something with you." I narrowed my eyes at him and he scoffed.

"Well, acting like a creepy serial stalker kidnap murderer wasn't the right way to get me in here," I crossed my arms.

"Oh my heavenly Buddha, did you really do that, nii-chan?" Aoi interrogated her brother. He only rolled his eyes in response. "Nii-chan!" She said again in a warning voice. Her head turned toward me again. "Anyway, I'm sorry for that."

I waved it away and sat in a chair. "So what did you want to talk with me about?"

"We," She looked toward her brother in a worried glance. "Have a favor to ask you."

"What is it?"

"Can you," She hesitated. "Help us in our skit?"

"A skit?" I cocked my head. Whatever they were asking me for seemed pretty suspicious.

"Yeah. A skit," The pokerfaced boy said. "Did you not hear?"

I growled at him. "I heard pretty well, thank you! I just think, whatever you guys are planning, is weird."

She sheepishly scratched her head and looked toward me with kind crimson eyes, not eyes full of hate like her brother. "Yeah. We kind of need your help on getting rid of Sumire."

"Sumire?" I knotted my brows in confusion. "But I think she's a really nice person!"

"You never knew her in high school and college. She was the definition of stalker," The low voice spoke. Well…she did go a bit overboard about the rose and dreamy prince stuff…

"And what if I do it? I'm not going to be killed or anything if I fail, right?"

"An additional yearly bonus and an all you can eat buffet," The low voice spoke out of nowhere.

"Holy cows! Are you serious?" I went big eyed on him. I was partially excited about the all you can eat buffet but I was all in for the money (More shopping money! *Happy dance!*) "I'll do it then!"

"Then you can't withdraw from the battle plan!" Aoi looked at me with an expression…of the devil. Oh shoot. I forgot who I was dealing with. The Hyuuga siblings. I gulped and beads of sweat suddenly appeared on my forehead.

"If you pull out," The eldest sibling suddenly flashed his crimson eyes at me. "Be rest assured, you'll be in major heaps of shit."

"Fine," I answered confidently.

My knees were knocking against each other.

* * *

_:-: February 5; 10:27 PM; Mikan's Room; Mikan:-:_

Impossible.

Impossible.

IMPOSSIBLE!

There was absolutely no way that MY boss could be my fiancé. No flippin way. I hunched over my MacBook Pro, holding my head in my hands. I sighed. I tried asking my mom about it, but surprise surprise! She disappeared on a two month vacation to France. So that meant another night home alone. Great. I rolled my eyes just thinking about it. If I wasn't broke, I would've chased after her in France. But I couldn't help it. Since dad was gone…she tried keeping me close to her, but sometimes she just needed her off times. Dad loved traveling A LOT. I remembered that they promised to travel the world together. So far, she's traveled to twenty four countries. US would be next, so she told me.

And why didn't I call her? She conveniently turned off her phone. Damn.

I sighed again. My eyes traced over familiar features of my room, only lighted by the blue hazy light from my laptop. The brown wooden vanity mirror which was pushed against the wall. My brown twin bed which was pushed to the corner. A plump Pikachu backpack nestled on the corner of my desk. The pens and mechanical pencils that were sprawled everywhere. Random papers that were laid everywhere. High heels, flats, sneakers, and boots were thrown across the floor. Blue and yellow pillows on top of one another. Clothes were everywhere. Books were on top of each other. Luckily, I didn't have any bugs climb into my room (or leftover food) or it would REALLY look like a landfill.

Aoi's favor ran through my mind throughout the day. Honestly, I thought her skit was a flake, but they were the boss and sister after all. Although I wished he could just tell Sumire directly. Things wouldn't have stretched out this long if he didn't tell her honestly. But even so, I felt partially guilty just helping them. I did admire her devotion to him all of these years. He must feel lucky, but then again...that stalker quality wasn't really admirable. All of these things weighed down my head and gave me a migraine. I sighed and reached for my laptop.

My index finger uncontrollably led me to everyone's favorite social networking site: Facebook.

Of course, like everyone else, I had a Facebook. I had like 600+ "friends", only less than half of them I actually talked to. I wasn't an addict though. Thinking of that reminded me to quickly type in my email address and my password. Since there was nothing to do, even checking Facebook was a sensible idea. In a matter of seconds, my home page popped up. I had 23 notifications (All random things like 'So and so liked your status' and 'So and so commented on your picture'.), zero messages, and two friend requests. I went ahead and checked my notifications on my profile.

I actually took pride in my profile. Sure, Facebook won't let you decorate your page (Stupid!) and keeps it blue and white; I think mine was pretty awesome. I photo shopped my picture on picnik, making it have rounded edges and black and white. It was a picture of me and a cheerfully happy Tsubasa and Misaki at their wedding. It was a classic photo in my opinion. I clicked on it and noticed several comments under it.

Misaki Harada: beautiful weddin pic! luv it!

Tsubasa Andou: you're beautiful

Misaki Harada: thankiess! Lubbb youuuuss hubbiee!

Judging from that conversation, I HAD to say something. It was just a sense of urgency!

Mikan Sakura: awww…look at that flirting couple! *whispers* get a room!

I smiled with content and I was eager to look at their replies. I clicked on friend requests. The first one, surprisingly, was from my boss's sister: Aoi Hyuuga. She was seen smiling with her unhappy, not smiling bastard of a brother. She photo shopped it and added text, saying, "Best Brother in the World! xD" I swear, she had like a brother complex or something. But nevertheless, I quickly clicked "Accept" and decided to check out her profile later. I had another friend request…and I had a bad feeling about it.

It turns out that my intuition was right. The rich princess herself added me as a "Friend". Miss Sumire Shouda. In her picture, she was seen smiling (In HD camera. Figures) with a bunch of cats and dogs. I was in "Oh-whatever" mode so I just clicked "Accept".

I clicked on Aoi's link to view her profile. I have to say, she's pretty attached to Facebook. I mean 1,821 friends! She must've been popular back in her school days. None of her friends really come by at work though. And then she had about 30 albums too. All of them were full, as expected of a Hyuuga. At the top of her profile, her status had read, "If you don't have anything to love, then who are you?" I automatically clicked "Like" among the other 50 people who liked it as well. In the search bar above, I typed in Sumire's name and clicked on it.

What I found blew my mind.

On her page, she had sneak photos of the jerk, and she photo shopped herself next to him. Even her recent (Or actually all of it) statuses were about him! She even made numerous fan clubs about him, making herself president of every single one. But the most surprising thing was that there were ACTUALLY people who joined! More than 700+ people too! I gawked in amazement. He must've been a lady killer in high school and college! Damn bastard!

Perhaps that bastard was right…maybe she WAS a stalker. It sent goose bumps down my spine. But then…she mentioned that other guy too. What was his name? Oh yeah…Koko or whoever. When she talked about him, it seemed like her expression changed. I think…she kind of liked that guy. I don't know what made me think that. Maybe it was intuition.

Ah…that's right. Thinking about the lady killer bastard made me think. How many other Natsume Hyuuga's were there? The one I was engaged with didn't HAVE to be my boss. I eagerly typed in his name on Facebook Search and hit enter. There were seven fan pages (No doubt, all of them were made by Sumire) and 182 results. My soul was relieved. There were 181 other Natsume Hyuuga's in the world. After looking through five pages of results, I wasn't really surprised. There were a number of guys AND girls. Well Natsume is a name that could be a girl's name too. But other than that, I figured that the boss probably didn't have a Facebook (Probably because he hates socializing) and I was probably engaged to some other Natsume Hyuuga who "coincidentally" worked in the wedding profession AND had a shop. Only mom and Hotaru know a Natsume and last time Hotaru visited, it seemed like she knew him. Arghh! Maybe he WAS the one I was engaged with. All of those possibilities flew around in my head. Whatever. As long as mom kept her promise about canceling the engagement after I worked for four months, I'm okay with that. But I can't imagine myself being engaged to my boss! I just couldn't! There could be another Natsume out there that could own a wedding shop and be a wedding planner too! I still had hopes.

I logged out of Facebook and placed my laptop on the nightstand next to me. I stared at the glow in the dark stars that were stuck to the ceiling. Thinking about love…I wondered if I would find the person I would be destined to be with. I hadn't even had my first kiss yet! I know, I'm kind of late, even for me. I had dated people before, thinking that they were okay to date. But afterwards, I found some kind of quality of them _irritating_ to a point. I wondered if the lady killer ever had a girlfriend before. Oh wait! What am I asking? He's a lady killer! Of course he had numerous girlfriends! I squeezed my eyes shut to clear out my thoughts.

Fifteen minutes later (When I was about to go to sleep too!), my cell phone rang with my familiar ring tone. I buried my head in my pillow with my arm trying to reach for my phone. After reaching it, I pressed the green button. "Who the hell calls this late at night?" I muttered into the phone.

A familiar low voice retorted back with a question. "Who the hell sleeps this late at night?"

I looked at the unfamiliar phone number on my screen and scrunched my face. I clearly didn't give the jerk my cell phone number. "How the hell did you get my cell phone number?"

"Aoi," He simply replied.

I gritted my teeth. "So what do you want?"

"The plan commences tomorrow. That's all," He responded. It seemed like he was about to end the call, but I quickly spoke again.

"Why tomorrow?" I answered back. This man had absolutely no patience. "Shouldn't we wait?"

"She's coming back tomorrow. I know it."

"Tch," I was fully awake by now. "Bastard."

"Ugly."

"Jerk!"

"Skank."

"Lady killer!"

"Idiot."

"Pervert!"

"Dumbass."

"Pedophile!"

"Whore."

"Man Whore!"

"Strawberry," He nonchalantly fired back at me. I gasped. How did the fricking bastard know? Instinctively, I crossed my arms across my chest. "H-H-How did you know?"

"The showdown in the room."

I gasped for the second time in a row and blushed from embarrassment. I could feel him snicker from the other line, showing that he clearly won. I yelled, "Lady killer bastard!" into the phone before ending the call.

I threw my cell phone across the room and I heard it crack. Yup, it's probably totaled! I now have an excuse to buy a new cell phone.

* * *

_:-:February 5; 10:34 PM; Crystal Clear Camp Lodge; Hotaru:-:_

We decided to go through with the countryside vacation and packed up. We were on a two week vacation to Crystal Clear Camp Lodge, somewhere in Hokkaido **(AN: I kind of made it up because I've never been to Japan :D)**. Ruka's friend recommended it to us because he told us it was a good place to relax. So, I went on vacation from my job as a professor at a university and he went on a leave from his private eye business. We left everything behind (Well, I had to carry my technology with me too) and commenced on our vacation.

But…other than that, I still felt like he was hiding something from me. They often said that the way to a man's heart was through his stomach. I ordered sushi takeout and pretended that I made it, but he figured it out soon. So that didn't work. I also tried getting him drunk but he started murmuring about bunnies, cats, and dogs. Tch, vacation seemed like the only way to do it, so I agreed upon his request. I had a stinging premonition that it had something to do with me. If it wasn't, then I would've cared less. But even so, if he's hiding something from me, shouldn't he tell me instead? He would know I would find out sooner or later, so why couldn't he tell me? I sighed.

Little tiny stars dotted the midnight blue dark sky. They were twinkling brightly like shiny glass reflecting off of light. My violet eyes traced up to the full moon. Simply beautiful. I twisted my wedding ring (It was a white gold diamond ring in case you wanted to ask) on my left ring finger.

A creak could be heard from the cabin and I heard Ruka sit next to me on the wooden ledge of the porch.

"Are you still working on something?" I glanced at him before looking at the sky again. Although I looked at him for only a mere second, I could grasp what he was wearing. A light blue tee shirt outlined the color of his eyes and a black jacket gave him warmth. I felt my heart skip a beat, but I didn't show it.

"Yeah," He put his hand on his forehead. "Apparently, one of my customers didn't get that I was on vacation and constantly called me. "I had to explain it to her." I shaped my mouth in an "O" to show him I understood.

"So, how do you like it?"

I turned toward him. "I love it," I simply said.

"You're not going to convince me with that look," He used his fingers to stretch out my cheeks, making my mouth turn into a smile. "C'mon, smile!"

I tried to grab on to his arms but to no avail. Eventually, I cracked a smile and did the same thing to him by using my fingers to stretch out his mouth. He laughed gleefully. "You look funny!" He continued laughing. I showed him a disgusted face. "You look even funnier!" I replied and stuck out my tongue at him.

That reminded me of something. "Oh! Ruka!"

"Hmm?"

"Natsume told you to check up on his 'fiancée', right?" I wondered aloud. "It's Mikan, isn't it?"

He cracked a smile at me and put his arm around my shoulder. I put my head on his shoulder, staring at the night sky. "It's really nice to have a smart wife. Yuka and Kaoru aren't the silent type to be talking about this matter."

"But you're not going to tell him, right?" I looked at him with hopeful eyes. "You know, I think they've changed a little since interacting with each other. This could be a good thing for them to be together. And I could blackmail him."

He smiled again and ruffled my hair. I squeezed my eyes for a second before looking down to stare at my ring. "I'm not going to tell him. Just a few hints and he'll probably figure it out on his own." I looked at him. "Buuuuut he's probably not going to say anything like the kind of person he is."

"Hey. Hey," I grabbed his jacket. His ocean calm blue eyes stared down at me in question. I want to ask him what was wrong…but there was this voice in my mind that echoed: _Don't do it! Don't do it! Don't do it! Don't do it!_ I eventually said: "How about we go to the lake tomorrow night to catch some fish? Does that sound good? I'm hungry for some seafood."

"Ahahahahaha!" His contagious laughing even made me crack a smile. "Sure! I have the fishing poles in the back of the car. I knew you were going to ask that sooner or later." He went still for a minute. "Thinking of food, I got something in the refrigerator! I'll go get it!" He stepped away for a minute to go get it.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a dark blue haired guy with a star under his eye holding hands with a bushy pink haired girl walking along the lake. I squinted my eyes. They _did_ look familiar. And I think I met them on an occasion once or twice. Oh…that's right. They were Mikan's "brother and sister". She told me that they just got married last week. I think they're on their honeymoon or something.

The guy with the star under his eye saw me sitting on the wooden ledge of the porch and they both waved to me. I waved at them back. They came toward me, hand in hand while I jumped from the ledge. "Hey Hotaru!" The blue haired guy spoke. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm taking a vacation," I looked at their hands intertwined within one another. On their left hands was a golden wedding ring. Seems like my guess was right. "Are you guys taking a honeymoon?"

They blushed at the same time, but this time, it was the girl who spoke. "Yeah. We heard about this place from one of our friends and they said it was a good place, so we decided to come. It's been a good place to be so far." She smiled grandly.

A hand slipped around my waist. Ruka's touch was always familiar to me. I didn't have to look back at him to know it was him. "Hi! I'm Ruka, Hotaru's _husband_. You are…," He emphasized the word and hesitated. Looked like I had to do the introductions.

"Ruka," I gestured toward the man. "This is Tsubasa Andou and this is Misaki Harada" I gestured toward her. "They were married last week."

"Oh," His voice faltered at the end. "Congratulations!" He said with a smile and shook their hands.

"Thanks!" They said at the same time. Tsubasa's watch beeped, signaling that they had to go. "Sorry, we have to take care of something in our cabin. Bye!" They waved at us before they turned their backs and disappeared.

I looked at him with contempt. "You didn't have to emphasize the word 'husband' Ruka," I marched back to our cabin. "They were obviously together, so you could've introduced yourself like a normal person." I was just up the wooden stairs before opening the door to our cabin. But before that, he had slammed his hand on the door frame and slipped an arm around my waist.

"It's a natural instinct, Hotaru," He whispered in my ear. My breath rate turned unsteady and the feeling of being nervous came to me again. It always had to be him that made me nervous. Damn! "I had to do something in case you got pulled away from me," He continued. I sighed and turned around to face him, leaning on the door. I held his face in my hands. "I would never be apart from you. That's what the ring is for!" I wagged my left fingers in front of his face and showing a little smirk. "I can't believe you were worried about that."

"We're all human, Hotaru," He showed me a cheeky smile. "Jealousy and desire are feelings that you just can't deny." His arms wrapped around my waist and my arms snaked around his neck. He continued on, "Especially when it comes to you and me."

I stared deeply into his light blue eyes and I slowly started to close my eyelids. I could tell that he was doing the same thing. In the distance, I could hear the stillness of the air and the noises of the bugs. I knew what he wanted and I wanted the same thing too. Just as we were about to close the distance between our lips, I had a different plan. Instead, my lips brushed his cheek. He opened his eyes in surprise and I gave him a full smile (Believe me, those don't happen often). "Suckerrrr!" I playfully said and escaped into the cabin and into my bed. I threw my flippers over my head and heard a thump. I pulled over my blanket, covering my head.

I could hear him taking his shoes off outside. "That's not fair!" He yelled. The door slammed behind him and he ran straight for my room. I smiled when he lifted the covers and found me. "I found you!" He said in a partially warning tone. But nevertheless, he jumped in on the left side of my bed and pulled the covers over his head too. He slipped his arms around my waist again and I? I just simply hugged him, sleeping in his arms and taking in his scent. He put his head on mine and whispered, "We should do this again sometime."

I nodded slowly, gradually closing my eyes and drifting off to my dreamland.


	7. Food and Fights

**Hey! Happy one year anniversary to my story at 08/23 (Ugh, the date school starts)! But at any rate, it's lucky chapter 7!**

**It's been quite a year when I first wrote this out of a semi-depression. My life wasn't going like I wanted it to be, so you can say I used my imagination of what my life could have been and integrated my fantasies into this story (Hehe!). However, I can say, I'm quite proud of my first work being this successful (I always thought my first one sucked because I improvised and lack of sentence structure and it's too fast paced)! I had my ups and downs, a long drought of writer's block, an extended period of procrastination and laziness, an Asian drama happening in my life, and I didn't update as much as I should (Sorry =-='). But, during this year, I've come this far because of you guys. This story wouldn't be what it is if you guys didn't give it a chance. So, thank you. I'm grateful to you all, so this chapter is dedicated to my loyal followers (Both reviewers and silent supporters-the ones who add this story to their story alert or favorite stories without reviewing xD). Okay, ENJOY!**

**8/25/2010: _Revised and edited by meeeeee! (I hope it's understandable!) (Read Chocolate Covered Cherries!~The Other GA Fanfic) _**

**Song Pick: Wedding Dress by Taeyang**

* * *

**:-:A Fateful Meeting:-:**

**:-:A Gauken Alice Fanfiction:-:**

**:-:Chapter 7:-:**

* * *

_:-:Mikan's house; 8:34 AM; Mikan:-:_

I had one of those crazy dreams again. This time though, I was dreaming about my boss.

It started out with me suddenly being in a frilly, lacy, and strappy type wedding dress. I was in one of those huge church aisles with the red carpet leading up to the altar, except I was just outside the door. My chocolate eyes scanned the seats and almost everyone I knew was in it: dressed in formal outfits. Aoi, Hotaru, Ruka, the loser who was infatuated with me in ninth grade, the neighborhood freak, the little girl I gave my precious balloon to, my ex boyfriend in high school, the guy who was an obsessive fan of Hannah Montana from across the street, the dog whose shit I stepped in just a few weeks ago. Even the nose booger girl I vaguely saw in college was also there. EVERYONE WAS THERE.

Well, everyone except the familiar shaggy head of my boss, Natsume. I shivered at his name. Huh, I guess it was a good thing.

"Mikan? Ready?" Narumi suddenly stepped up to me and took my white gloved hand in his arm. He wasn't even his familiar baker's uniform anymore. A grand new tuxedo was his outfit of the day, and he looked out of place in it.

"Narumi? What are you doing here? What am I doing here? Why am I even in a wedding dress?" I looked down at my feet in confusion, which were also adorned in strappy white polished high heels. Being a woman and all, I had a sinking intuition that something was horribly wrong.

"Silly!" He poked my arm with his black butler like gloves. "It's your wedding day! I bet you were so happy that you forgot." I looked at him in protest, while he quickly shushed me. "Quiet, now Mikan. The wedding march is starting!" The traditional and overused song was playing, and I found that I was dragged toward the altar by Narumi. _I_ was getting _married_ to someone? WHO? As far as I knew, I was never in love with anyone at this point! At this point, I should be sleeping in late for another workday! _Why_ was I at a church? WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO ME?

I threw a desperate glance at Hotaru, who was in the first row. She turned…and actually SMILED at me. She SMILED at me! Not everyone can get a grand 1,000 kilowatt smile from the Ice Queen herself, you know? Those were few and far in between, and I've only witnessed them less than I've made a perfect score on my tests! This either had to be an improbable fantasy or a traumatic nightmare. And at this point in time, I'm going with that nightmare one.

As I looked uneasily from aisle to aisle, the people in it honestly looked really happy for me. Even Tsubasa and Misaki gave me a thumbs up. "What kind of sick joke is this?" I screamed at them, but, they didn't hear me because they continued to smile and wave at me. I groaned in defeat. Apparently, this dream can mute out my voice. I hung my head down. I was at an unwanted ceremony, and I was certain that I had to be in a dream. It was almost like what my mom wanted me to do. Marry a stranger and live my whole life in misery. A quick thought flashed through my mind. I read an article a few years back in college about dreams being like some kind of premonition. I snapped my head up. If this was a premonition kind of dream, then maybe I could see who this "Natsume" person was! Mom didn't mention his last name, and it's just a coincidence that he's in the wedding profession AND he owns a shop, right? Last night, I was way in over my head that the person I was engaged to had to be a person with the name "Natsume Hyuuga", but maybe his last name is different! Maybe this "Natsume" guy was actually handsome and nice!

But when I walked closer to the altar, inch by inch, I could tell that it was not the case. The guy standing in front of it had his back to me, but his features were distinct. He was lean, but muscular…as if he had been practicing some kind of sport. I cringed inward. Natsume just told me somewhere within 24 hours ago, he had been practicing judo. Please don't tell me he's haunting me! I reluctantly looked back at the gloomy figure.

And one more detail made me definitely sure he was coming to haunt me. Does this mean he's dead already?

He shook his shaggy ebony colored hair like a dog shaking off water and I confirmed my suspicions. He was definitely coming to haunt me. My feet didn't dare take another step next to my boss in my dream, but Narumi dragged me up to him anyway. My nerves were numb and I held my breath while I was standing next to him. The crimson eyed jerk smirked at me and mouthed "I'm going to make your life a living hell" while the pastor repeated the same overused wedding speech. I wanted to punch him right there and then, but I noticed something shiny on his ear lobe, although his hair was hiding it. Was it an ear piercing? The man before us had just finished his speech and he was waiting for me to respond. I angrily responded, "I DON'T WANT TO MARRY THIS BASTARD JERKWAD!" But then, dreams don't go the way you want them to, do they (Because then, we'd be having sweet dreams all the time and not nightmares.)? My answer was muted and it seemed like time pressed forward without them hearing my answer. And then it was his turn to answer, and I heard it very clearly.

"I do wish to marry this ugly girl to make her life a living hell," He replied with an evil smirk at me. I wanted to vomit right there on the spot. On his pants.

"And now I pronounce you a happily married couple," The pastor smiled evilly at Natsume, as if they were conspiring together with one another.

And then I wished a nuclear bomb went off at that point.

Luckily, I got my wish granted. Just not the nuclear bomb part. I awoke from my slumber with a jerk. I could feel beady drops of sweat lining my forehead. And then I blinked. Natural sunlight was coming out of my bedroom window and I steadied my breaths. No wedding altar. No overly happy guests. No booger girls. No evil pastors. No Natsume.

Wrong.

"Hey," A dark voice came from the corner in my secluded room. I turned, wide-eyed at the familiarity of the voice and screamed, pulling the blanket up to my chest tightly (It's lucky that I don't sleep stark naked!). THE BASTARD WAS IN MY ROOM!

I quickly glanced at my corner which wasn't tainted by my dirty clothes or shoes. Sure enough, the lean and muscular crimson eyed man leaned on the walls with a dirty little smirk pulling at the corners of his mouth. He was dressed in his usual attire: a graphic white and black tee shirt, a black jacket, dark wash jeans, and a pair of black Converse to top it all off **(AN: Omigod, Natsume's so hot! Kyahhh!). **It took a lot of deep breaths before I ranted on him.

"HYUUGA! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE? WAIT, HOW DID YOU EVEN GET IN HERE? YOU'RE LIKE SOME KIND OF EDWARD CULLEN! YOU CREEPY STALKER PERVERT! HOW'D YOU EVEN GET MY ADDRESS? STALKER!" I panted, out of words. He nonchalantly looked at me to see if I calmed down, and then it took a minute for him to answer.

"They don't call me the Black Cat for nothing, strawberries," He hooked his thumb toward my open window and I sneered at him, waiting for him to continue answering my remaining questions. "Ruka kindly gave me your address and I don't know who the hell Edward Cullen is, but he sounds like some rapist stalker. And as to why I'm here…," He paused while I had the courage to pick up my totaled phone under his unwavering eyes. "Well, then, you'll have to find out."

I threw an angry look at him and pressed buttons three times. "If you don't get out, I'm going to call the police and the dogs will bite your stinking body into pieces! And I'm going to sell every single thing that you own to your oh so devoted fan club girls and make a fortune! And I'll never leave you alone until you die!" I stepped up to him with my full height and head high while thrusting my totaled cell phone (The screen cracked, but it was still visible. And I thought that it was a perfect excuse to buy a new phone!) right into his face.

He cocked an eyebrow at me with his unchanged expression. "Go right ahead, strawberries. It's not like I've been threatened before." And with that, he sidestepped to the left and exited my room.

"Hey!" I chased out after him after quickly shutting the open window to my room. "Aren't you afraid that I'll report this to the authorities?"

"No," He grunted and made his way down the stairs to my kitchen.

"No?" I chased him down to my kitchen where he was rummaging through my fridge. "And what do you think you're doing looking through my fridge?"

"I'm hungry," He offered as an explanation to my question. He narrowed his eyes before slamming the refrigerator door. "There's nothing to eat."

"Really, I don't know why I should be serving you," I muttered under my breath. My hands absentmindedly threw him a perfectly preserved cinnamon roll that was wrapped in plastic. He caught it with a swift movement and quickly unwrapped it. His teeth hungrily sunk into the lukewarm roll and quickly took more bites. I sunk into the kitchen chair, biting my own cinnamon roll. Since that nightmare, I no longer had the energy to face off with my enemy, which was a mere 10 feet away from me. Today just wasn't the day. "No, really, what are you doing here Hyuuga? The neighbors are going to think that some stalker stalked into my house to watch me sleep. Like Edward Cullen."

He leaned on the kitchen counter and narrowed his short eyebrows at me. "Just to make sure you didn't pull out of the plan."

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "I don't know why it _has_ to be me. Can't you find anyone else?"

"No."

"Why not?" I pouted. In a weird sort of way, I didn't like being dragged along with the siblings' "malicious plan".

"Because if I asked any other girl, the plan would break. You're one of the ugly ones who don't care."

My throat tightened and grabbed the nearest bread slice. I wasn't totally done with him calling me names.

"You pervert!" I threw it at him and it landed straight at his eye and flopped to the floor. Bulls eye! Even his reaction was pretty hilarious. He froze in mid bite of his cinnamon roll. I laughed to myself. "You totally deserv-!"

Before I knew it, the cinnamon roll that he was holding was heading straight at my head. It came in contact with my head with a "Smack!" and my head flew backwards before I knew what was going on. I stumbled to find the nearest food item: A banana. It was ready in my hands and he pulled out a carton of eggs from the refrigerator. My feet separated and I bent my shoulder blades forward in a battle stance. I glared at him with all of my effort while he narrowed his cold blood red eyes at me back.

We charged toward each other at the same time with food in our hands, ready to put up a good fight. It was a full fledged food fight: messy with broken eggs on top.

This. Was. War.

_:-:27 minutes later:-:_

The whole kitchen _stank._

Wait, let me rephrase that. The whole kitchen _reeked_ of sour eggs, powdery flour, onions, mushy bananas, a day old tiramisu cake from Narumi, cold lemonade, expired almond cookies, slices of rotten lettuce, and lukewarm earl grey tea. Luckily, we didn't take it on the entire house or else that would be to _my_ disadvantage. But needless to say, it was an intense 30 minute fight.

My enemy was on the other side of the ram shacked kitchen, pulling out leaves of celery out of his hair and was splattered in green Gatorade while being caked in powdery sugar at the same time. His outfit was splattered in murky squished grapes and strawberries and his used-to-be-squeaky-clean Converse shoes were covered with coffee creamer that made his shoes squish in a disgusting sound whenever he took a step.

I was no worse for wear. My hair was caked with all-purpose flour with broken egg shells that were trapped in my hair. My favorite over sized red tee shirt was covered with pickle juice and lemon slices and splattered with lukewarm coffee. My shorts were doused in dishwater soap and rotten lettuce pieces. My legs and feet were also dripping with tea, paprika, and peppermint cloves.

We weren't the worse though. The kitchen took most of the damage. Almost half of it was doused in brown sugar, rice was spilled on the floor, pickles and cucumbers were hanging from the dirty microwave, various mysterious liquids dripped slowly on the floor, and cereal was spilled across our grimy battlefield.

I stepped out from under the dining table, which was acting as my territory/headquarters. I lifted and arm to my nose and gently sniffed it. And I immediately pulled it back, as if I was dealing with a poison infested rat. I glanced at him, who was doing the same exact thing.

And then I couldn't help it.

I busted out laughing. It was just like one of those moments when you don't know what you're doing. Perhaps I was laughing just because. Life's too short for you to take seriously, so maybe that moment was much needed. Since we're all doomed to die anyway, why not appreciate the moment? My gleeful laughter alerted him and he glared at me. "What, strawberries?"

I looked at him once and continued on laughing. "Nothing," I said in the middle of laughing. "It's…just…that…you look…Ahahahahahahahahaha! This is too funny!"

He scowled at me once more. "Yeah, well my clothes are soaked."

I tried to stop my laughing to explain where the bathroom was, but I ended up laughing hysterically all over again. Instead, I pointed a shaky finger toward the general direction. He stomped off towards it, but not before stopping to look back at me for a moment.

And I swear, I saw a smile climbing up his lips instead of his usual dirty smirk. My brain froze to reprocess my memory while I heard the distant sound of the faucet running. Did…the Ice King…really…just…smile? The repugnant scent of onions and mashed bananas brought me to reality and I groaned. I guess I'll never know, huh?

* * *

_:-:Paris, France; 4:50 PM; Yuka:-:_

"Kaoru! Where are you?" I pouted at my pink cell phone. "You know, I had to come all the way here just to get away from Mikan! Who knows what that girl and her clumsiness might do to my darling house! She might be having a food fight in the kitchen right now!"

"Calm down, Yuka," Kaoru's calm and easy voice said from the other line. "Mikan's a good kid. I don't know if she would do that, because you know I haven't seen her in a while, but I'm sure my Natsume would. Oh! I see you now!" I looked up from my phone and into the busy streets of Paris. Neatly dressed Parisians were scurrying across the busy streets, going home or going out for an early dinner. "See? I'm waving from inside a blue and white restaurant," She continued. I turned around and around but I still couldn't see her waving hand. "Kaoru! I still can't see you!" I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion and grasped my blue crystal key chain globe in my hand. "I thought we agreed to meet up together and share a room together at your vacation house like we were in Alice Academy!"

"We are, Yuka!" I couldn't hear it, but there was a visible sigh on the other end. "Here, I'll come and get you." And with that, she ended our conversation. I looked at the phone screen in disbelief and sighed. Kaoru was always Kaoru, impatient as always.

Someone lightly tapped my shoulder. "Someone's as lost as ever."

I whirled around and I was enveloped in a hug. "Yuka! I haven't seen you…since yesterday!"

"Ahahahahahahahaha! Me too!" We separated and smiled at each other. She had her same distinct ebony hair and her bright crimson eyes. Natsume and Aoi inherited her features; I could tell from an old photograph. "Sorry, I had to have time by myself to explore a bit of France."

She tugged on my hand toward a blue and white Parisian restaurant. "Nope! It's okay! Igarashi and I had to visit some places too."

We entered through the wide glass double doors and Kaoru took back her table by the window. I pulled out an elegant extra chair and sat facing her with a smile. "So, where _is_ Igarashi?"

She waved it away with her hand. "He's somewhere painting Paris scenery. Most importantly," She paused and looked at me, full in the eye. "Why are _you_ in France?"

"You know, I just always wanted to travel. And Mikan was bound to find out about the engagement, as klutzy as she is." Kaoru rolled her eyes, not believing it.

"The real reason," She emphasized the words. "Is because you still want to look for Izumi."

Hearing that name spurred memories for me; it was just so nostalgic.

"Okay…maybe," I paused while she sipped her tea.

"You know, I still don't get why he just left and left you behind like that," She pointed to my blue crystal globe key chain. "It's just irresponsible, even for a perverted guy like him."

"Kaoru, Izumi isn't that kind of guy," I smiled a bit. "There had to be some circumstances as to why he left suddenly." I clutched my globe. Before he disappeared, we had made a promise to travel together. It was a promise.

"But it just isn't right to leave you guys, all of a sudden," She continued to sip her tea. "It's not like you're going to find him anytime soon. But I do think Izumi is a good guy."

"Why else would I marry him?" I said as I twisted my ring on my left ring finger. It was nostalgic remembering my happy memories with Izumi. I just hoped he would come back. Preferably soon.

"I just don't get why you didn't hook up with Shiki," She rolled her eyes while I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion.

"Shiki?"

"Don't pretend you don't know. He's had a crush on you like forever!"

"Ah! That Shiki! It's true, I've been in contact with him throughout the years, but he was only merely a best friend!"

She smiled that smug smile of hers at me. "Yeaaaaaahhhh. Uh-huh."

I sighed. "Really, you still act like a little teenager."

"Ahh!" Kaoru suddenly remembered. "Natsume and Mikan!"

My ears perked up and I suddenly remembered their "blind engagement". "Ah…Kaoru. I forgot to mention that I promised Mikan that I would call it off if she worked for it. Did you know? She's working in Natsume's store! It's a 'fateful meeting', like in those sappy romance books."

Kaoru merely smiled at me. "I _have _heard. Aoi said something about it during one of our family dinners, and I was like 'WHOA!' inside my head! Its okay Yuka, I did the same thing, just different circumstances. I promised him I would call it off as well, if he got a proper girlfriend. And since we're getting on," She winked at me and I smiled evilly. "I figured that we should arrange them to hook up together. If they _do_ get married, we can officially be…"

"Sisters!" I finished the sentence for her while picking up an almond cookie. Of course, the idea was implanted in my head, but I wanted to know if it was definitely possible. Mikan seemed serious about calling it off this time. "I remembered that there was a girl that you liked, Kaoru. I forgot what her name was. The creepy fan girl who stalked him, remember?"

She chuckled at recalling the memory of it. "Oh, Sumire Shouda? She's pretty rich, but I heard Natsume hated her. One day, when I was cleaning and he was somewhere, she went right up to the door and introduced herself. It's kind of a shocker, but I actually kind of liked her. But she's not as pure an honest as Mikan." Her eyes flickered to me while I finished eating my cookie. "We should hold a joint dinner together. They'll be surprised to meet each other!"

I grinned, thinking on the same wavelength as her. "Of course! So when are you going to take me to your house?"

"Soon!"

* * *

_:-:Mikan's house; 9:24 AM; Mikan:-:_

"Okay, then set to cold wash!" I pressed the button on my clothes washer. My clothes from our food war were filthy dirty so, I stripped my grimy pajamas off and had a quick five minute shower. It's weird that the person down stairs takes longer showers than I do. But I guess that's a good thing because who knows what that pervert downstairs might do if _he_ finished early.

I sighed and leaned on the washer. While I was taking down my dirty clothes to wash them, I figured: I might as well wash his clothes as well along with his dirty shoes. …Okay, so maybe I stole them when he was still showering. Luckily, the black shower curtain was slid between us. But hey, I gave a legitimate excuse! They were really dirty _and_ they needed to be clean! I was merely doing him a favor out of the goodness of my heart.

Now, don't misunderstand.

I just want to know how much I could get if I sold his clothes and shoes on eBay.

…

Okay, so maybe Hotaru's money grubbing habits rubbed off of me. I was just curious! Especially if his fan girls got a hold of this, I wouldn't need to work anymore! Just admit it: you're probably curious about how much his clothes would be sold for. He _is_ an infamous celebrity who already has unofficial _fan clubs_ that were practically stalking, breathing, worshipping, and inhaling his every move! Just think! Right now, those crazy minded fan club girls could be having some kind of love ritual and drinking his leftovers from his trashcan! I mean, that's just mind blowing! My feet ran up to the nearest window and looked out the window. No crazy fan girls whatsoever. A part of me was relieved that there were no crazy stalking fan girls, but I still couldn't be satisfied. If they _ever_ found out he was in my house, they would tear it apart one by one and I'd be homeless, toting around a sign that stated: "My house was torn apart by my boss's crazy fan girls. I now live on selling said boss's clothes on eBay."

The creaky bathroom door opened and I could tell he was stark naked, save for my favorite pink Mr. Bear towel without even turning around. I almost wanted to cry when I turned around (It was my childhood memoir!) and there he was, standing in all of his dripping water-ness. But I was also stunned too.

There he was, in all of his godliness, shirtless. If he was on the beach, girls of all ages would be all over him. Literally. He had abs, but they weren't like the ones that belonged to major sweaty work out muscle guys (I don't get why some girls like those kinds of guys, showing too much muscle is a no-no for me.). They seemed firm and soft, like barely-there abs, but still there, you know? (Oh my god, I can't believe I used two sentences to describe his abs.) He even had those barely-there muscled calves and those arms that looked…so inviting. For some strange reason, a part of me just wanted to hug him and feel secure in his arms. Best part was: he was dripping _wet_, which made his features stand out more (Even if he _was_ clad in my Mr. Bear towel). Now I know why those crazy fan girls ador-

Oh my god, did you just see me describe Natsume Hyuuga's godli-no UGLYNESS? I mean he's a big jerk and everything and he constantly has fan girls on his tail! Sooner or later, he's going to make me lose my home!

"Hey," His dark _unsexy_ voice pulled me out of my reverie. "Where are my clothes?"

I shoved two pieces of Juicy Fruit in my mouth, to keep my jaw from dropping to the floor. "T-T-They're in the washer right now," I stuttered. "I can get you my over sized boy clothes if you want?" That sounded more like a question than I intended it to be, but I hoped he didn't notice it.

"Go get it then, idiot," He leaned on the wall with a sigh, illustrating a portrait of an impatient husband waiting for his slow wife. I was immediately pissed off all over again. What was _he_ doing, using my house as his own? My anger blinded my steps upstairs, grabbing my biggest shirt, pants, and shoes. Hastily, I threw the pile on his head from the second floor. A string of curses flowed out of his mouth and he glanced up at me.

My simple explanation for his response: I stuck out my tongue at him.

Impressively, he didn't even react to _that_. Whatever happened to the Revenge/Ice fan girl king? Instead, he just slammed the door to my bathroom without a word.

There are just some things I don't know about him. It's like he's closed off his heart to people to want to get to know him better. Maybe you just have to break his defenses first to get to him. Otherwise, how else did Ruka succeed in becoming his best friend? Now that you think about it, it does kind of seem impossible. Pushover nice guy and impulsive perverted dude being best friends isn't something that you see everyday. I wonder how they became best friends anyway…

The creaky bathroom door downstairs opened again and I hurriedly fled down the steps. After all, I gave him relatively bright clothes (Like blue and green) and he usually wears those dark clothes. Seeing him dressed in bright colors might even be a good change!

Well, there were changes all right. I could tell he felt kind of awkward wearing my big blue "I Love Bears!" tee shirt, my pair of green dyed jeans, and yellow size 11 Converse (They were my mom's.). But he did look…different. In an _unsexy_ way.

"Don't you have anything else that's big and over sized?" He asked as soon as I reached the landing.

"No, not really. Sorry," I passed through the kitchen and covered my nose. I should clean it up later. "Unless you want to take a pit stop at your house."

"Then let's go," He pulled out his keys and waited for me at the door, almost as if he didn't want to touch it. I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion because he was always one of those types who would be fearless and step right out the door.

My hands paused before getting my keys that were next to the door. "So, I'm assuming you're going to drive me to work and back?"

He pierced his crimson eyes at me. "That is, if we get rid of Permy. I'm going to go to my house first anyway." His hands tugged on my tee shirt and pulled it over him, revealing his chest. He threw my blue shirt at my stunned expression (Believe me, I was trying not to have a nose bleed in front of my arch enemy!). "I won't need that."

I quickly threw my oversized shirt to the couch. "Are you sure you won't need a shirt? It's still chilly outside." I pulled my sweater tighter over me, as if I was teaching him you need to wear a shirt or something in February, not go around half naked!

"If I had my lighter right now, I'd burn it." _Translation: That would be the last thing I'd wear, even if I had to walk around naked._ He cocked his head. "Clear enough? Are you done with your questions yet, strawberries?"

I was clearly fuming. If he was just standing there making fun of me, why couldn't he just go out the door already? If my job wasn't on the line, I would've knocked him through the roof already! "I got it, boss," I gritted my teeth and barely touched the doorknob.

Before it fell.

IT FELL AND I BARELY TOUCHED THE DOORKNOB!

"WHAT THE HELL?" I yelled. "Am I imagining things, or did my front door just fall?" I looked up at the crimson eyed man and seeing his expression made sense to me now.

"_And as to why I'm here…well, then, you'll just have to find out."_

That was the real reason he came all the way to my house. I stood in my house, staring at the paved entry at my collapsed door while he just stepped all over it and made his way to his roofless silver Mustang. As he sat in the front seat, I could see a triumphant snicker form on his lips. He ignited his engine and yelled, "Hurry up over there, strawberries!"

You know what? After all of my complimenting him, he isn't worth it at all! I take back what I said about his godliness! I hate him! I HATE HIM! I felt like even if I wanted to yell it out loud to the world, it wouldn't even be enough.

I quickly dialed Narumi's number, knowing he was sleeping in. I quickly tapped my feet and glared angrily at Natsume when he finally picked up.

A groggy voice answered the other line. "H-h-hello?"

"Hey Narumi. It's me. Can you do me a favor?"

"Eh? Mikan? What do you need so early in the morn-"

"My front door fell down and I need to go soon. Please go fix my front door, okay? I don't want to go home to find my house ram sacked and a drunken Irish guy throwing up over my couch. Thank you! I'll buy you dinner or something later. Thanks again!"

"Eh? Mikan, wai-!" I ended the call before he could ask any further and went out to my pathway to pick up my poor door, trying my best to fit it in the hole of my house. When I was sure it stabilized, I cautiously stepped away from it, as if it was going to fall if I went away. I ran as fast as I could and jumped into his car without opening the car door. I would've admitted out loud that I felt like a ninja, but I was sitting a mere ten inches away from my arch enemy himself, so how could I? I scowled at him for unscrewing the bolts to my door, as if my life depended on it. And then I looked away, because he might get the wrong idea that I was admiring him! Which I wasn't!

"Trying to be cool, huh?" He said nonchalantly as he drove away from my house. I tried to concentrate all of my willpower into not answering him, but in the end, I couldn't help it.

"Aren't you doing the same thing?" I muttered at him with a sarcastic look on my face. By this point, we had already exited the entrance to my neighborhood. _So he doesn't live here…good! I don't want a crazy stalker living near me anyway!_

"What?" He asked with his stoic face, as if he didn't notice he was driving in a roofless Mustang _half naked_!

"Nothing," I murmured. He stopped behind a car with a personalized license plate that read "IFARTED". I sighed and looked out the window. Oh wait, there wasn't one because it was roofless and the stupid _half naked_ owner decided to leave it roofless! Something moved out of the corner of my eye and I turned my head to look at a beautiful girl driving in a silver Porsche. And she was waving at me! I was so tired after all of that commotion, I waved back. And then she looked at me with a look of disgust and rolled down her window.

"Hey sexy!"

Me? Sexy? Well, thanks I'm flattered but I don't thi-

"Hey," The stoic voice behind me answered. I whirled around in my seat to see him coolly resting his left arm on the steering wheel and casually waving his right hand at her, smirking in a half smile. And he was shirtless. Righhhhhtttt. It all made sense now. The one she was calling sexy wasn't me. It was the blasted lady killer jerk bastard who was sitting across from me-shirtless.

I caught his glance and scowled while she replied again. "So are you available anytime soon?"

I seriously can't believe they're making plans to hook up in the middle of the street! As soon as the light turned green and he was about to answer, I yelled "It's green! Go!"

Yeah, and I yelled it loud enough for them to hear=embarrassing. Nevertheless, he concentrated back on the road and drove on the road to his house. And I was beginning to think that his fan girls were continuing to stalk him because I felt watched.

And I secretly wished a foreign UFO from the planet Hormones: The Planet of the Homosexuals would take him and I would joyride his silver Mustang home.


	8. Author's Note

Dear Beloved Supporters and Readers,

Gosh, I don't even know where to start. First of all, I cannot express how deeply sorry I am for disappearing on a hiatus without a warning. My personal life took over (That isn't an excuse, I know), but it's all right now. It must be funny, coming to read something but then you get this. I know it's been a long time for you guys and you probably don't even remember the plot anymore (I don't either) but this is my first work, and I'm not going to give up on it. Instead, I plan to make it better. When I went back to read this story, I cringed at my writing (Is it because when you get a year older and you look back and say "I did some stupid things, huh?") and the plainly obvious plot line that was like a predictable korean drama.

Right now, I already planned the revised story out to the very end, so it will be like a prewritten story, with regular updates. Right now, I'm planning out the main points of the story by chapter instead of improvising with this story *wince*. It may take an undetermined about of time to finish it, but I will be back to write it and post it.

I've been reading alot more now, and it's time to make some major plot changes to this story. First of all, my revised story will not have Mikan betrothed to Natsume as originally planned. It'll make the plot less like a predictable drama story. The wedding concept is still the same. The "secret" the Ruka is hiding won't be in the revised plot, as originally planned either. So there's going to be major plot changes (and pray to god that I will have a laptop for this) and lots of revisions and stuff, and I'm looking forward to that :D.

Last of all, I need help from you guys. This story has been going through various title changes and I haven't been able to decide on one because I felt that my titles weren't right for the story (It was vague and predictable). So, I decided to let YOU guys make up a title :D. If you have any suggestions I will consider it very carefully and I will inform you of the title change after the first revised chapter is posted.

Thank you very much for your support and I will work hard!


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